Extensive Six Nations Coverage On RTE

RTE Sport has confirmed details of its comprehensive RBS 6 Nations championship coverage for this season’s tournament, with over over 90 hours of coverage including 45 hours on RTE Two television, 40 hours of live streaming on rte.ie, and seven hours of live commentary on RTE Radio 1.

Following the huge success of RTE’s coverage of the 2006 Six Nations, this year RTE Sport will be delivering its most comprehensive coverage of the tournament to date.

RTE’s coverage of 2007 tournament will include:

– All 15 matches across the five weekends of the tournament broadcast live on RTE Two television

– For the first time, all 15 matches will be streamed live on RTE.ie within the Republic of Ireland

– All of Ireland’s matches broadcast live on RTE Radio 1 FM

– Hour-long highlights programme after each of Ireland’s games on RTE Two television

Glen Killane, RTE Group Head of Sport, said: “Last year, RTE’s Six Nations coverage attracted the biggest ever audiences for the tournament on Irish television and I’m delighted that this year RTE Sport will be delivering our most comprehensive coverage yet. We constantly strive to deliver the big competitions to the widest possible audience and with coverage across RTE Two television, RTE Radio 1 and rte.ie, we are also offering greater choice and flexibility to sports fans.”

RTE’s coverage of last year’s Six Nations attracted the highest Irish audiences ever for the tournament, with a peak of 821,000 viewers tuning in to see live coverage of Ireland’s Triple Crown clincher against England on RTE Two.

Ahead of this season’s historic Croke Park games, RTE Television will broadcast a specially commissioned half-hour programme entitled ‘Croke Park – The Opening Hour’, which celebrates the moment when Ireland unites in sport as the Irish rugby and soccer teams play in Croke Park for the first time.

For the live match coverage on RTE Two, anchorman Tom McGurk will be joined by George Hook, Brent Pope and Conor O’Shea, with Tracy Piggott reporting from the sidelines and commentary by Ryle Nugent, Tony Ward, George Hamilton, Ralph Keyes, Tony Clement and Gary Moran.

RTE Radio’s in-house rugby expert Michael Corcoran will be joined by former Ireland internationals Ciaran Fitzgerald, Victor Costello, Donal Lenihan, David Humphreys, Conor McGuinness and Emmet Byrne for live on-air reaction and analysis of all of Ireland’s games.

Further to the RTE’s extensive live coverage of the tournament, Tom McGurk will also present an hour-long late night highlights programme after each of Ireland’s matches. There will also be live coverage of the Ireland ‘A’ and Club Internationals as well as the return of ‘Against The Head’, the weekly rugby magazine programme on Mondays at 8.00pm on RTE Two.