The Rugby Channel was
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
's only channel dedicated to the national sport of
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
. When live matches were not on, the channel screened classic games and documentaries relating to the sport. It was the only channel committed to showing all major matches in the
widescreen
Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...
16:9 ratio popular with newer television sets, but from August 2008 Sky Sport changed to widescreen as well after
My Sky HDi was launched. However, Rugby Channel viewers could exclusively watch the press conferences following major rugby matches, and could watch most major European rugby games as well. It also screened live and exclusive college 1st XV matches then replayed on Sky Sport later in the week.
Closure
The Rugby Channel closed on 31 July 2019. From 1 August 2019, all of The Rugby Channel's programming was moved to
Sky Sport 1, making Sky Sport 1 a 24/7 rugby channel. The final program aired on The Rugby Channel was a documentary, Greats of Super Rugby: Christian Cullen.
External links
*
The Rugby Channel at LyngSat AddressThe RugbyStream Channel at UK
References
Television channels in New Zealand
Defunct television channels in New Zealand
Sports television networks in New Zealand
Television channels and stations established in 2002
English-language television stations in New Zealand
2002 establishments in New Zealand
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