It can be incredibly disappointing to see rugby matches move off onto a variety of different paid for channels. None of the latter are cheap, so many of us were quite pleased to see Amazon include the Autumn Internationals as part of their Prime subscription.
Hence it was a disappointment today to see that the 2024 internationals have now been awarded to TNT Sport (formerly known as BT Sport). I’ve been online to try and find out how one could add this channel for the autumn but their website really doesn’t make it easy.
So if you don’t already have this channel, you can add it if you’re a BT broadband (or it looks like EE as well?) for £20
.
If you’re going to take the plunge and go for BT, the website price has changed since I first looked at the page, so it looks like if you take the broadband and TNT Sports package out, it will cost you currently (9th April) £45.99 (reduced from £54.99 about 20 minutes ago). but the site says that prices will rise on 31st March, so I’m not sure if this means 2025 or just that the site hasn’t been updated since last week. Confused? I know I am….
If you’re an existing customer or one about to come to the end of your current contract, it’s worth negotiating with them to see if you can get a better deal as well as speak to other providers which appear to include EE.
I’ve seen quite a few complaints already about this on social media as well as people suggesting sharing the cost amongst friends; great if it’s a neighbour so you haven’t got far to get home.
Maybe it’s time for us to start supporting our local rugby clubs a bit more because they will surely be showing important games. Other alternatives would be to wait until someone posts the match onto a channel like Utube and watch if for free.
Supporting a French club from the UK has never been easy for me so I’m well versed in finding alternative ways to support my team live; I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve watched a match from Skype or WA with someone’s laptop turned towards their TV screen. VPNs worked for a while and still do in certain countries, so this can be helpful.
I do note that the TNT deal is for this year only; perhaps if they don’t get the hoards of new customers they are hoping to enlist, that they will lose interest…
