Scottish Rugby is delighted by the successful return to terrestrial TV of club rugby.

The action-packed Scotsport Rugby Sunday programme, broadcast on stv, is seeing more than 100,000 rugby fans tune in each week since its first outing at the start of November, with the highest audience peak to date more than 160,000 viewers.

Gordon McKie, Scottish Rugby’s Chief Executive said: “We’re very pleased with the mix of coverage in the programme and also by the number of viewers tuning in.

“Since the programme started both our pro-teams, Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh have been featured, all ten clubs in Scottish Hydro Electric Premier Division One have been covered and there have also been packages on the women’s game, sevens and our national academy programme.

“We’re very keen to encourage more people to become involved in rugby in Scotland and presenting our game on terrestrial TV is vitally important to growing our numbers.”

This coming weekend the programme will cover matches in Scottish Hydro Electric Premier Divisions 2 and 3, while there will also be packages on schools and youth rugby in the weeks ahead.

Scotsport Rugby Sunday is broadcast on stv at 6pm on Sundays. The show is also shown on ITV Border at 12 midnight on Tuesdays.

Supporters who miss the show can also catch it along with extended interviews and match action sent in by rugby clubs on www.stv.tv/rugby. The stv site also links to Scottish Rugby’s website www.scottishrugby.org which contains all the information you need to find out more about your local club and be part of the game.

This article was posted on 5-Dec-2007, 14:25 by Hugh Barrow.