New Zealand’s premier subscription TV network, Sky Television, has today confessed to not purchasing the broadcasting rights for this year’s playoff games of the Rugby World Cup, which will leave viewers unable to watch the All Blacks’ quarterfinal game against France this Sunday.
Sky has apologised for the mix-up, which saw them instead purchase the rights to the World Petanque Championship by accident.
But not all is lost, says Sky spokeswoman Kirsty Way, who promised that Sky Sport would be broadcasting something “almost as good.”
“We know how badly kiwis want to watch our boys play the French this weekend,” she said, “and we felt terrible that we might prevent them from doing so, so we did some digging around in our archives and tried to find the closest thing to Sunday’s match.”
As a result of this effort, Way confirmed that Sky Sport 1, 2 and 3 will all be showing the 2007 Rugby World Cup Quarterfinal against France – where the All Blacks lost narrowly 18-20 – on constant loop for at least the next week.
“Same teams, same stadium, same stage of the tournament,” said Way. “It might not be the newest version, but it’s as close as you’ll get, and we think you’re going to love it.”
Prime TV – which was going to free-to-air broadcast the upcoming All Blacks game(s), but was sourcing its content from Sky – will have the option of playing the 2007 quarterfinal or the World Petanque Championship, which Sky insists is “actually quite good.”
If the All Blacks make it to the semi-finals, Sky will play the 2003 semi-final against Australia, and if they make the finals, the 1995 final against South Africa.
“If none of those tickle your fancy,” said Way, “we’ll be playing the 2013 America’s Cup on Sky Sport 4.”