RugbyRebels

Premier Sport will be the home of both the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup from this season, the EPCR have confirmed today.

The European competitions had previously been aired on TNT Sports, however they will now be aired on Premier Sports until the end of the 2026/2027 season as part of the new deal. It also means all 63 matches of the Champions and Challenge Cup campaigns will be aired on Premier Sports.

Premier Sports membership starts from £10.99 per month and includes access to the Premier Sports streaming service, which can be streamed on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, PC and Mac, Fire TV and Chromecast, LG Smart TVs and Android TV enabled devices.

In the UK, it is available in the UK on Sky TV channels 419 and 420, Virgin as channels 551 and 552 and on Amazon Prime as an add on subscription.

Are the premiership games still on TNT?

TNT has the Prem still.

I’ve got it via Amazon Prime and the user experience is proper shite.

Well my interest in the European competition has been slowly eroded by the awful format changes and the addition of South African clubs, so I definitely won't be spending over a tenner a month for another subscription service purely to watch it.

So now if you want to keep up to speed with the English game you need TNT for the Prem, Premier Sports for Euro and Sky Sports for internationals. Definitely not pushing people towards dodgy streaming sites with this model...

It feels like professional rugby really tries hard to actively reduce its audience sometimes.

Adam_P wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 5:15 pm Well my interest in the European competition has been slowly eroded by the awful format changes and the addition of South African clubs, so I definitely won't be spending over a tenner a month for another subscription service purely to watch it.

So now if you want to keep up to speed with the English game you need TNT for the Prem, Premier Sports for Euro and Sky Sports for internationals. Definitely not pushing people towards dodgy streaming sites with this model...

It feels like professional rugby really tries hard to actively reduce its audience sometimes.

Yeah that's how I feel about it.

URC fans are happy as they get their league, Top14 coverage and now Euro games in the same place.

Epaminondas Pules wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 4:59 pm I’ve got it via Amazon Prime and the user experience is proper shite.

I've got Amazon Prime - how does one get Premier Sports from that?

If I have to pay extra, I will just go without the Euro games. They can fuck all the way off with that shit.

Puja

Puja wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 6:30 pm

Epaminondas Pules wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 4:59 pm I’ve got it via Amazon Prime and the user experience is proper shite.

I've got Amazon Prime - how does one get Premier Sports from that?

If I have to pay extra, I will just go without the Euro games. They can fuck all the way off with that shit.

Puja

Yep you have to pay for it as an extra. Worth noting that it's only £10.99/month if you sign up for a year, on monthly rolling it's £15.99/month

Adam_P wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 5:15 pm Well my interest in the European competition has been slowly eroded by the awful format changes and the addition of South African clubs, so I definitely won't be spending over a tenner a month for another subscription service purely to watch it.

So now if you want to keep up to speed with the English game you need TNT for the Prem, Premier Sports for Euro and Sky Sports for internationals. Definitely not pushing people towards dodgy streaming sites with this model...

It feels like professional rugby really tries hard to actively reduce its audience sometimes.

Do they show the Top14 in the U.K./England? If so, they have my money.

Puja wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 6:30 pm

Epaminondas Pules wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 4:59 pm I’ve got it via Amazon Prime and the user experience is proper shite.

I've got Amazon Prime - how does one get Premier Sports from that?

If I have to pay extra, I will just go without the Euro games. They can fuck all the way off with that shit.

Puja

This. And then they wonder why people lose interest and drift away.

Beasties wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2024 7:46 am

Puja wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 6:30 pm

Epaminondas Pules wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 4:59 pm I’ve got it via Amazon Prime and the user experience is proper shite.

I've got Amazon Prime - how does one get Premier Sports from that?

If I have to pay extra, I will just go without the Euro games. They can fuck all the way off with that shit.

Puja

This. And then they wonder why people lose interest and drift away.

For quite a few years now I have been very selective in my European viewing - basically just watching English clubs in attractive-sounding games, usually only at the knock-out stage. Conversely, I watch at least one premiership game per weekend and dislike the break in that coverage for the Euro games. If the channel deals had happened the other way round I would have given up TNT and paid for the other lot in order to follow the premiership. The European stuff is not worth paying for, never mind paying extra.

I agree that this is a bad rugby decision.

Mellsblue wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 10:34 pm Do they show the Top14 in the U.K./England? If so, they have my money.

Yeah they do, and URC

Adam_P wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 5:15 pm Well my interest in the European competition has been slowly eroded by the awful format changes and the addition of South African clubs, so I definitely won't be spending over a tenner a month for another subscription service purely to watch it.

So now if you want to keep up to speed with the English game you need TNT for the Prem, Premier Sports for Euro and Sky Sports for internationals. Definitely not pushing people towards dodgy streaming sites with this model...

It feels like professional rugby really tries hard to actively reduce its audience sometimes.

Exactly how I feel. Really strange choices. If they are pushing people like us away who are they going to make money from?

Mellsblue wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 10:34 pm Do they show the Top14 in the U.K./England? If so, they have my money.

They do, but the coverage is truly awful. Things like advertising a certain game at a certain time & then you tune in and they have a different sport on instead. They have been known to end transmission in the middle of a game, lose pictures, lose sound etc.

Terrible competition format with too many teams, and infinitely too many non-European teams had already harmed the European Cup massively.
Having a separate subscription just harms it further.
I won't be taking out a new subscription.

ETA: If it's a move to get all the European rugby competitions onto one provider then fine, maybe I'll pick it up once that's done.
The Prem still retains some of its interest for me, EPRC had gotten to the point that I didn't even watch all the Bath matches, whereas a few years ago I'd be watching 4-6 matches per weekend.

Timbo wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2024 10:12 am

Mellsblue wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 10:34 pm Do they show the Top14 in the U.K./England? If so, they have my money.

They do, but the coverage is truly awful. Things like advertising a certain game at a certain time & then you tune in and they have a different sport on instead. They have been known to end transmission in the middle of a game, lose pictures, lose sound etc.

Pretty much this. Add in. if you're a BT TV customer you can only get it through Amazon, and the experience is even worse. There's no rhyme or reason to any ordering of replays, no real search, and you have the same with the live channels as Timbo points out. Proper gash!