Unofficial England has had a heartfelt plea from Mark Busby exiled in the Land Down Under! It would seem that Foxtel will not televise the RBS Six Nations Championship. This is what Mark has to say:-

6 Nations!!! We need help

Hi Kath, don't be too alarmed, the 6 nations is still gonna happen. BUT not for those of us who live in Australia.

Nothing, no live games, no highlights not a sausage. Unless you go to one of about 20 pubs in the whole of Australia who have special link ups. There are over 400,000 English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, French and Italians who won't see a second of the greatest tournament in the world.

Last year Foxtel (same as SKY) did show the matches but decided not to bid this year. When I enquired why they told me "we didn't think people would be interested" Can you believe that!!!

However last year after many emails and phone calls to Foxtel they did show the Wales Ireland match after initially deciding not to show it. This is where I hope you and your posters maybe able to help us.

Us being the hundreds of Brits whom I have been in touch with over this situation, including the Sydney Welsh and Irish Associations who have started bombarding Foxtel with e-mails and phone calls.

Is there anyway, through your site that we could publicise our 'crusade' or set up some sort of link for people to email foxtel about our 'Show us the 6 Nations" campaign? Here is the link to their "Comments, suggestions" page - our message is simple.

" Please Show us the RBS Six Nations Championship"

Now then everyone if you feel Mark has a justified case then please email Foxtel and tell them using the link above.

Thank You!

Update on this story - reply from Foxtel:

From: Feedback <feedback@foxsports.com.au>
Date: 14-Feb-2006 09:11
Subject: RE: (foxsports) Feedback from the FOX SPORTS website
To:faria

Setanta now have the exclusive rights to the Six Nations in Australia.
Setanta are a new service provider who have recently started purchasing
rights to major sporting events in Australia. They are acquiring the
rights to hand picked events and are showing them at selected clubs and
pubs around Australia. Setanta were determined to acquire the exclusive
rights to the Six Nations and continually beat any offer that Fox Sports
made. Fox Sports final offer was 4 times larger than what we paid last
for last years Six Nations and as a business a larger offer could not be
justified given the level of widespread appeal and ratings results from
2005. Unfortunately as a result of these exclusive rights Fox Sports are
unable to gain access to replays or highlights.

For full schedule information (including delayed broadcasts and repeats)
and a list of Setanta Pub Channel venues please see www.setanta.com.au.

Kind regards,
Premier Media Group
_____________________
It looks like they were simply outbid! At least they tried.

So unfortunately it is a case of finding a pub or club showing the 6N or getting it over broadband. More precise links for Setanta are:

http://www.setanta.com/content /setanta/au/cms.nsf/systemconte nt/tvschedule for the schedule

http://www.setanta.com/content /setanta/au/cms.nsf/systemconte nt/page?open&systemtitle =ozvenues:pubchannel
for pub venues

http://play.www.setanta .servecast.net/setanta/au /default.aspx for the broadband service

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