Get the best result for watching sport on TV

Confused about how to access all the football and rugby? John Cradden explains the plans

It’s that time of year again when the start of the Premier League and the Rugby Pro14 championship prompts a scramble among sports fans to ensure they have the right television package to watch them.

Every so often, the tug-of-war among providers over TV rights to the big-league games may also force some of us to switch providers in order to catch must-watch derbies like the Red Devils vs the Sky Blues or the Leinster lads vs the Munster men, among others.

“The sports TV market has definitely become far more fragmented recently and there’s no longer one single sports channel which will fully satisfy a person who has a broad range of sporting interests,” says Daragh Cassidy of price comparison site Bonkers.ie. “Increasingly, sports fans will have to double up, or even triple up, on their sports subscriptions if they want access to all the year’s main sporting events.”

But even if you are the most dedicated fan, the question is: how much are you prepared to pay for unfettered access to the TV coverage?

If you have deep pockets, you could simply opt to pay for all the sports content available to Irish TV consumers, which could mean well over €100 a month along with your broadband and phone plan, according to price comparison site Switcher.ie.

“Basically, no one TV sports plan carries all sports content, so if you’re an armchair sports fan, the best bet is to consider what all of the different providers offer and decide on the plan that suits you best,” says Eoin Clarke of Switcher.ie.

Rugby

There’s been some confusion about the TV rights here to the Pro14. In a nutshell, Eir Sport has agreed a deal to broadcast 152 Pro14 matches with six live games every weekend, which includes every Munster and Leinster game live. TG4 will also broadcast around 34 matches per season, but won’t show the Munster and Leinster games as they’ll be shown exclusively on Eir Sport.

The Eir Sport pack will give you access to European Champions Cup rugby too, along with the European Challenge Cup matches. Eir Sport also has exclusive rights for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Recently, Virgin Media has announced the launch of Virgin Media Sport, which will be available to all Virgin TV customers for free, with other consumers having to pay a fee to access it.

There was some concern that the Six Nations would move to this channel, but Virgin Media has since confirmed that it will remain free-to-air on TV3 (which is shortly to be rebranded as Virgin Media One).

RTÉ has the rights to Ireland’s matches in the November Test series, as well as the Under-20s and women’s internationals in the Six Nations.

Football

Sky Sports has the lion’s share of the rights to the Premier League, although 42 Premier League games will be available through the Eir Sport pack on BT Sport.

Virgin Media will be broadcasting the majority of Champions League Games, as well as Europa League and Euro 2020 qualifiers through its new Virgin Media Sport channel.

Virgin Media TV customers will have a new channel, which will otherwise be available through monthly subscription to other consumers via the Virgin Media TV app.

The Eir Sport pack also has every Champions League game and every Europa League game.

The traditional Tuesday night Champions League coverage will still be available on free-to-air TV, with the early game on TV3 (soon to be rebranded to Virgin Media One) and the late game on RTÉ.