Women's 6 Nations rugby BBC coverage

[TeddyBare]

An ex-student of mine will be playing in the women's 6 nations this year. I checked the BBC coverage schedule to see if I would be able to watch her play and surprise surprise I can't. I don't think a single one of the women's matches is getting live BBC coverage. I find it difficult to believe that there are more Italy / France supporters (to justify showing the Italy v France match) in the UK than there are people who would support the women's team of their respective country. I have emailed the BBC to complain and say that I would have liked to be able to see some of the matches. Would anyone like to join me? I hope if they get enough emails they will consider showing at least some of the women's matches next year. I think it would be really nice to see women on TV doing sport.

You can make a complaint by going to here: www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/?reset=#anchor

I have sent a complaint into the BBC. I totally agree with you. No wonder women dont get involved in sport it makes me sick.

I've just send in a rant complaint. I pointed out they ignored England competing in the finals of the hockey world champs this weekend as well.

Thanks for making me aware of this. I've just sent in a complaint.

MrsClown - actually the BBC did not (quite) ignore the hockey champs - see

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/5345480.stm

There will be live red button coverage of the England-Wales women's match on 25 February.

By all means everyone send a rant because it is true that the BBC don't do enough to cover women's sport, but I urge anyone ranting to make sure they get their facts right, otherwise it sort of undermines the rant

Hmm, I stand by my rant where I pointed out that third rate men's football was broadcast in favour of first rate women't hockey. I didn't see any of the prominance given to women's hockey, where the UK was playing, when the Superbowl, which is in more or less the same time zone, was given blanket coverage.

Red button coverage is not the same as terresterial channel broadcasting.

They are showing England v Wales on the red button, and Sky is showing England v France on 11th March live apparently.

Scrum V (Welsh rugby highlights prog) shows (brief) highlights of the Welsh women's game every week, you could watch that if you can get BBC2 Wales.

I don't have a red button so I didn't check that. I can get BBC2 Wales though, so thanks for the tip CelticPromise.

I would love to see coverage of this.

However, I do not find it difficult to believe that there are more people interested in watching the Italy / France match in the men's 6 nations, than there are people who would watch England in the women's 6 nations.

Would you have been interested in the women's 6 nations if your student hadn't been playing, TeddyBare?

I probably would have watched the Welsh team anyway. I admit that's partly because I want to support women's sport so I seek out TV coverage of women's sporting events, but it is also partly because I would be supporting Wales in general. I will probably see at least some of the Welsh men's team matches, and I don't know any of them.

The other morning I had bbc news on while getting ready and the sports round up came on. This snidey bloke did a report of an important women's hockey match and informed us the next match would be on at some insane time in the morning. Then he finished with a smug little "We'll all be staying up for that" or similar.
It doesn't sound particularly offensive, but it was definitely said with an undertone of sarcasm. Didn't like it.

qwerty as a rugby fan and player I'm interested in the men's and women's tournaments, but I would rather watch the men's France v Italy than any women's matches (I'm Welsh). I would never miss a men's 6N match if I could help it. The quality is much better as a rule and the tournament is much more competitive. England tend to dominate the women's comp.

Things are getting better, for example Wales and England women are each playing at their national stadium once this tournament. The quality of women's rugby overall has improved hugely over the years I've been playing and female players don't get as much grief from the old committee men. It's a very slow process though. I don't know what the answer is, I am a feminist but these are my views as a fan of a sport. I'm sure it could be marketed better. Sky showed England v NZ last year which was actually better than the men's game that day and a good advert for the game.

Misread your post qwerty sorry. I agree with you about the France Italy game!

Celtic Promise - not sure what you misread :o) As a veteran of the Brussels Ladies team I feel I should assert that it is correct - in my view - that it should be rugby first and politics second. Lets kick politics out of sport!!!! lol

Slug - thanks for pointing that out to Sportsfanatic. I hope it came across that it was not easy to find coverage.

MrsClown and Slug - allow me to clarify. I agree with both of you that BBC coverage of most women's sports is derisory.

The point I was making (perhaps badly) is that if a rant tells the BBC that it is ignoring something completely, the comeback is likely to be "No we didn't - red button" etc. whereas if the rant says coverage is so poor that you have to search hard to find it and then it is only on the red button, you have undermined their likely comeback. Instead of (correctly) denying they ignored it, they have to justify why they banish it to the broadcasting equivalent of the cellar so that those with only terrestrial TV have no chance to see it.

Personally I subscribe to Sky Sports, who don't ignore women's sports and cover team games such as women's cricket and rugby pretty much in full.Yes, I know it's Murdoch (yah boo for many) but it's the best option for genuine sports fans. Eurosport is a good channel too - covered the men's and women's Australian Open tennis in full.

At a snail's pace looks like the Beeb is finally getting the message....women's boat race to be given equal billing (from 2015)

ww.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/rowing/9068436/Boat-Race-becomes-the-Boat-Races-as-women-and-mens-university-events-are-combined-for-2015.html

Actually, I think it goes deeper than just failing to cover the games. Look at the BBC website. In all sports there is the "British Team" and the "British Women's Team".

Interesting isn't it how the national team is always assumed to be male unless stated otherwise. Why can they not have the Men's team and Women's team as standard.

Anyway, with respect to the coverage and the Red Button, I am reminded of the late great Douglas Adam's comment on these things (from Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy)

"But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months."
"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."
"But the plans were on display ..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"That's the display department."
"With a flashlight."
"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice didn't you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."

The boat race coverage was apparently demanded by the new sponsor!
If you want to stay informed about what women's sport will and will not be covered I highly recommend following @sportsister on twitter and reading their magazine. I have caught so much women's sport since I started following them (after bbc spoty fiasco)

TV companies will show the games that provide the highest viewing figures, unfortunately the population as a whole aren't interested in women's football/rugby. The stadiums themselves are often half full at most. If women feel so strongly about women's sport they need to start going to games and supporting them in action, not whine because it's unequal TV coverage. They won't get equal TV coverage until the viewing figures warrant it.

"Thanks for making me aware of this. I've just sent in a complaint."

To me this reads as "Actually I've never been really interested in women's rugby, and certainly have not made an effort to watch it, but it's a women's issue, so I'll complain anyway".

Well the nation didn't have much interest in competitive cycling until we became successful at it and it began to be shown on television more. Until a few years ago the Tour de France was about the only competitive cycling on television outside the Olympics and that was on late at night on Channel 4. Yet two months ago Mark Cavendish was Sport's personality of the year.

I've said it before but the media have the power to make personalities and make people interested in sports and their participants. They just choose where to apply their power. It is also a chicken and egg situation. If people don't know it is on then they don't get an opportunity to be interested. The more publicity a sport gets the more participants it also gets (and therefore more interest). After the 2000 Olympics, rowing was absolutely inundated with people wanting to start.

The women's cricket international match between New Zealand and England is live on Sky at the moment.

Anyone watching?

I've recorded it for later. Hope it's closer than the last two I watched - England were a class ahead of NZ in those.

Lol, it's hard to be 'interested' in something you have had no exposure to! It's as if women in sport don't exist, of course unless it's tennis and they're wearing short skirt and grunting...still, can't have them think they're equal so lets focus mostly on what they look like and ridicule their skills.