Scottish MSP in TV rugby plea
July 3, 2010 · 0 Comments
The Scottish Parliament backed the Scottish Rugby Union’s campaign for more television coverage after Edinburgh Central MSP, Sarah Boyack tabled a motion entitled : “Broadcasting Black Hole for Scottish Rugby”.
The Scotsman reports that the debate saw a number of MSP’s make a plea to the BBC in Scotland and a number of other broadcasters to shift the focus of their coverage to more Scottish sports, particularly rugby. Boyack hopes that the debate will send the message that there is an appetite for better coverage on terrestrial television.
Boyack said : “Rugby is a much-loved sport in Scotland and is on the up at all levels, but without coverage it will be hard to inspire the next generation to get involved. Young people need to see their heroes; they need to learn the craft of the game and skills from watching the big games.”
“We’re all signed up to greater participation in sport. The health benefits there are from wider sports participation, and we’ve heard about the importance of the sport financially to the Scottish economy. But with all that positive backdrop we still don’t have consistent coverage on TV outside the Six Nations Championship, so my motion calls for more investment in the broadcasting of Scottish rugby.
“In the next few years we will see rugby on the world stage more and more. Yet rugby in Scotland is being marginalised because of a lack of coverage and I hope our national broadcaster, the BBC, will sit up and listen to today’s debate.”
Dominic McKay, the SRU’s Director of Communications, commented: “The mood of parliament was clearly for more coverage of rugby for supporters which we clearly welcome. But this is not purely an issue for the SRU, but for the whole of rugby across Scotland because coverage affects every level of our game.”
Tags: BBC Scotland, Rugby, SRU
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