Rugby Canada and Mediazone sign agreement

Rugby Canada and MediaZone announce a multi-dimensional six-figure sponsorship to provide broadband coverage of Canadian rugby through the Rugby Canada Network, powered by MediaZone.com.

Rugby Canada press release [excerpts]:

The Rugby Canada Network is a major step towards the National Union being self sufficient in providing much needed coverage of a variety of its national and domestic content at a time when there are few avenues on mainstream television to showcase the sport. The Rugby Canada Network has already broadcast events such as the 2007 Canada U17 Men’s and Sr. Women’s Fall Tours to the UK, the Rugby Canada National Championship Festival and Rugby World Cup warm-up matches including the friendly against Portugal in August 2007. [...]

MediaZone’s partnership with Rugby Canada solidifies and expands the community-based destination for matches, schedules, results and access to other rugby information not available anywhere else. During the last year as the Rugby Canada Network was unveiled to supporters, the content was made available at no cost whether it was a live National Senior Men’s competition or tape=delayed coverage of a domestic event. [...]

Under the new deal, the Rugby Canada Network will now offer live content via subscription and pay-per-view and FREE tape-delayed content with advertising included.

In an innovative new approach to on-line content distribution, the Rugby Canada Network will simulcast hundreds of hours of Rugby Canada’s domestic events on both the official Rugby Canada site (www.rugbycanada.ca) as well as MediaZone Rugby (www.mediazone.com/rugby). [...]

Rugby Canada’s live content will soon be available as a part of the MediaZone Rugby All Access Pass which includes more than 275 live, first-class matches in Canada, featuring full coverage of the Heineken Cup, Super 14, June tests, Tri-Nations series, Celtic autumn internationals, the Currie Cup and Air New Zealand Cup. Both MediaZone and Rugby Canada will offer a Rugby Canada Network Pass for $29.99 on each of their respective websites, which will include access to live feeds of all Rugby Canada events that air on the Rugby Canada Network.

Full announcement, click here.