The Italian Rugby Federation (FIR) has reached an agreement with social media platform Facebook to stream coverage of the Top12, the top tier of the club game in the country.
Facebook will show the entire 2019-20 Top12 season, including the end-of-season play-offs and final on May 30, on the FIR’s official page.
Highlights clips will also be published on the FIR’s Facebook and Instagram accounts during the week. Fans will also be able to discuss the action through the Facebook Watch service.
Regular-season matches will be covered by two cameras, with the top match of the week to be covered by three. The semi-finals and final will benefit six-camera coverage plan.
The Top12 has relied on internet streaming in recent seasons and matches from the 2018-19 campaign were made available on the FIR’s YouTube channel, Facebook channel and official app.
In 2016, the FIR announced its first “full coverage” of the Italian top division through an agreement with the RugbyChannel portal. Games were streamed on www.therugbychannel.it and on the RugbyChannel’s YouTube channel. Matches were produced by MS Network, the Italian production company, in co-operation with the FIR.
Additional coverage was secured through a highlights deal with Mediaset, the Italian commercial broadcaster, with short highlights shown on Italia 1’s Studio Sport sports news programme and on Mediaset’s other channels.
The 2019-20 Top12 season got underway earlier this month.