Fitzgerald confident Pro12 will only benefit from Sky coverage

Munster chief executive Garrett Fitzgerald believes the Guinness Pro12 will benefit hugely from Sky Sports’ coverage of the tournament which begins with two exclusively live games this Saturday.

The broadcasting giant will screen Ulster’s trip to the Scarlets and follow it up with the clash between Glasgow and defending champions Leinster at Scotstoun later in the evening.

Munster begin their campaign by welcoming Edinburgh to Thomond Park tomorrow evening for a contest that will be screened live by TG4.

“Everyone is quite excited about Sky getting involved in the Pro12,” said Fitzgerald. “They produce a very good product and if you see what they do with football they make a very average football game look exciting at times. It will give a much bigger international dimension to the product.”

The loss of live Pro12 coverage was a major blow to RTÉ, which had shared rights with TG4, and it is compounded by the fact that the station does not have live access to the Rugby Champions Cup, now carried in Ireland by Sky and BT.

Whether such a scenario is good for the game’s development in terms of visibility factor is a debate that has been had across the globe in a variety of sports, but Fitzgerald clearly feels that will not be an issue.

“There is a lot said about people having pay-per-view channels. A lot was said in the GAA when Sky came on board, but I think a lot of those people had Sky in their front room. I think they are watching Manchester United and Liverpool on them.

“So, I think they will watch Tipperary and Kilkenny and Munster and someone else as well. This tournament needs Sky. It needsinternational coverage and I think they will do it well because they always do it well.”

Modern sports are increasingly at the mercy of the TV companies when it comes to arranging fixtures and Munster have hardly been helped by a fixture list which sees them play five of their first six home matches on a Friday evening.

Fitzgerald admits that poses a problem: “The first challenge we have is that over 80% of our supporters will be travelling quite a distance to all games. Where if you compare it to the RDS where maybe 80% of the people can walk up. That’s a big difference for us.”