Does ProD2 on YouTube offer example to other leagues wanting exposure?
Few sports fans would have heard of the ProD2, but for rugby nuts it is seen as the best second tier competition across the sport’s global offering.
Last night saw Provence and Soyaux Angouleme face off in the post-season playoffs. And for the first time Brits were able to tune in.
But you’d struggle to find ProD2 rugby amongst the listings of sports broadcasting behemoths, instead it was on YouTube.
FR-UK Rugby co-founder and host Tim Cocker insists that there will inevitably be problems to overcome as they test their offering but expects it to be smoother by the start of next season.
He tells City AM that Courtney Lawes – a British and Irish Lion and England centurion – moving to Brive was a key factor in recognising there could be a Home Nations audience for the ProD2, likening it to when Paul Gascoigne, David Platt and Paul Ince arrived in Serie A in the 1990s.
ProD2 appetite
“From the start of next season, there will be a live game every Thursday night,” Cocker says.
“Thursday was the one we were particularly interested in because Friday, Saturday and Sunday is well populated in the rugby landscape.
“There’s going to be a Six Nations game on a Thursday next year, but it just feels like a no-brainer, a little slot where rugby fans will have an appetite.”
The plan was cooked up over a couple of beers, and will involve production names associated with the standard broadcasting firms who have offered rugby in the UK for years, as well as Brive coach Joe Worsley, who was a key cog in getting the deal over the line with French bodies and broadcasters.
But this is nothing new. It is understood the newly rebranded Champ Rugby could opt for YouTube streaming, with the RFU digitally broadcasting Ealing versus Coventry this weekend.
And lesser-known website Destination Calcio has also entered the fray, hosting the Serie B Italian football rights until 2027.
It points to two factors: a growing demand by audiences for a range in their sports offering; and a greater ability to host matches away from linear channels.
Champ swoop?
So could FR-UK swoop in for the English Champ?
“I really love that league and my brother’s going to be a coach in it next year,” Cocker, a broadcaster for 20 years, adds.
“When I think back, we must be talking 10-15 years, it was such a good competition, and the funding cuts they’ve had has been absolutely shocking.
“I was [once] involved in efforts to broadcast the Championship and there was no interest. But yes, you never know, it could spin off into something else. But this is what we are focused on right now and it is an amazing thing.
“They’re mad about their rugby in France and some of the biggest teams and biggest names are in the ProD2, so there’s a lot more coming from us.”