In an exciting move that will benefit not only Italia, but European Rugby League, an announcement was made via the ‘Italia Rugby League’ Facebook page and Italian Rugby blogs – Rugby1823 and Right Rugby that the 2010 Gillette 4 Nations Rugby League tournament to be staged in New Zealand and Australia beginning this weekend has recently had a broadcast arrangement picked up by ‘EUROSPORT 2’ to feature live and exclusive TV coverage.
The Four Nations tournament coverage will receive commentary from Luca Tramontin (lucatramontin.com) and Gianluca Veneziano, who helped deliver this historic coverage together with Eurosport 2.
In recent years, since the re-emergence of Rugby League in Italy, TV coverage has steadily improved with the coverage of high quality competitions, such as the National Rugby League and European Super League, through the Italian pay TV company – Dahlia TV via the Dahlia Sport Channel.
However, the Four Nations tournament will be shown directly into Italy and other select nations, through the EUROSPORT 2 pay TV brand, allowing many more Europeans to see the game of Rugby League for the very first time and die hard followers to have the chance to see top notch Rugby a XIII!
This year matches will be covered by Euro Sport 2 that falls under the EURO SPORT group of companies and it will be located under channel 212 of the SKY package.
This weekend’s matches will be broadcasted on Saturday 23 October at 9 am for the kick-off between New Zealand vs. England directly and on Sunday 24 October at 7am for the Australia vs. Papua New Guinea, within Italy.
The ‘EUROSPORT 2’ is a relatively new sports television network (from 2005) that is PAY TV group mostly dedicated to team and alternative sports, which can be seen in over 40 countries and features 14 different languages. Only select nations will receive the Four Nations Rugby League coverage, due to differing programs and TV right options – however with current information available it is known Spain and Germany will receive the same coverage from Eurosport 2. Eight other European countries connected with a rival European TV Company have TV rights to the tournament as well ( broadcast information at http://www.rlfournations.com/default.aspx?s=broadcast-information – to be updated).
This unprecedented TV coverage of the premier International tournament (excluding the Rugby League World Cup) in Italy and Europe is vital, along with many other major aspects, in helping toward the ultimate goal being the growth of the movement of Rugby League and helping to reach aims in the participation of teams across the country, strong promotion, increasing the knowledge of Rugby League to the Italian population and a possible catalyst in the development of the code, for Italia Rugby League.
This TV coverage announcement, follows up the historic TV Coverage arrangement that saw the inaugural iRFLeague Gran-Finale Day (Campionato Italia Rugby a XIII – managed by the ‘Italia Rugby Football League’ or IRFL, which is an second organisation in Italy) be broadcasted on National and Local (Rome/Lazio) TV stations, normally unheard for a Domestic Rugby League Championship in it’s first year.
The year -2011 will be a positive year in the development of Rugby League in Italy, domestically and internationally. Planning has been and is underway, which will see positive events and outcomes reached in the growth of the game! Watch this space – lots of promotion to come!
For all the latest Italia Rugby League news ‘like’ our Facebook Page that currently has 6,876 fans (one of the largest International Rugby League) at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Italia-Rugby-League/93324638836
The EUROSPORT website can be seen at http://www.eurosport.com/ and for Italy http://it.eurosport.yahoo.com/
Article courtesy of iRFL.