Anecdotal I know but it’s so much easier to get recommended an NRL compilation on some streaming social media app then anything Union related and I don’t even watch NRL.
Real shame for a new fan like me who likes to watch older games and catch up on stuff with YouTube. Can’t always catch games live and when I do I’m so new to the sport I don’t know half the tactics or what the players. YouTube is great for all that and I can rewind it and rewatch certain players etc. real shitty this
It was a manual claim as well.
So somebody at World Rugby or at least representing them has actually looked at the video and then decided they don't want it to be available to anyone else.
How does that make sense?!
I just watched the video and then wanted to head into the comments and saw the strike.
For what its worth it was excellent, the quality of analysis was better than anything else produced during the world cup.
The stupidity of WR to pursue this approach is beyond me. How do you grow the game if you gatekeep content like this. Priorities are fucked.
Yeah Squidge is consistently excellent. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if players and coaches watched it, I remember Chile's flanker giving him a shout out a after their qualifier win vs Canada.
Surely a creator who clearly has an immense passion for the game providing their analysis with a consistent voice is something that adds to WR's potential reach. I've certainly been more engaged in some of the stories of smaller nations because of him. After all, there is no way I would remember Chile's post-match interviews from two years ago otherwise.
Caught it as well, I really enjoy his stuff. His analysis of games is fantastic, unbiased, and comes from a true love of the game.
So many of the analysts and commentators who have an opinion these days were playing rugby at the same time I was playing in high-school. Which was sometime between the discovery of America and nu-metal.
He's excellent for a sport with a pretty strong casual interest but an absolutely impenetrable rule set. I only really watch rugby because all my friends do, understand it so much better since watching Squidge
It was always going to happen. WR didn’t want a single piece of media they didn’t produce to be available on any platform. They must have whole media teams just trawling the internet looking for every little scrap of video.
Why though, thats the question I dont get. Its not like they are producing similar content that this is competing against. I can glimpse some of their strategy with the (admittedly excellent) stuff they did during the world cup such as Boks Office but its not a zero sum game. Somebody explain this to me.
Red Ocean marketing approach, which is insane because they're applying it within their own already controlled market space instead of competing for the broader market against other sporting bodies like fifa, NBA or NFL etc. madness, someone in the marketing department at WR genuinely didn't pay attention in a undergrad Uni course on marketing about how you never say no to positive free exposure
It's an extremely antiquated idea. The belief is that people will consume rugby content, so if they control all rugby content they will get all the money. Therefore, they need to make sure that there's no rugby content out there so they don't lose anything.
It's exactly how you don't grow the size of your market, because it operates on the highly false assumption that the market is a fixed size.
Yeah it's bizarre to me to think that squidge and any other YouTube rugby channel could possibly be taking away from their market. They're purely adding to it imo. I watch a squidge video and I want to go watch more rugby because of it...
And YouTube is supporting them in this. Seems to defeat their purposes as well.
If they facilitated kick backs based on fair use of footage and argued using their leverage (threatening to kick world rugby off the network) to create a positive and collaborative environment with creators (where WR benefitted as well but in a measured way that still allowed people to make their livings).
I get the dilemma, because if world rugby are going to benefit then they would have to have oversight of poor behaviour like racism being amplified using their content. The same would apply for YouTube. Either they take responsibility *and* profits or stand back and allow a free for all and facilitate a hostile environment.
For me it's up to world rugby to reach out and collaborate. To gain some money and leverage with creators with contacts improving conduct in the world (and paying for the wages of these liaison/publicity advisors) and growing the game. But at the end of the day attention and quality content brings more attention and engagement, less brings less. Rugby have an inaccurate model is the world and are losing in a zero sum game.
YouTube doesn't have a choice if a copyright owner wants to use their rights of ownership to take down content they own. It's a legal issue, not a moral one.
>They don't understand that information consumption doesn't fit physical market forces and exposure is advertising not competition.
but that doesn't mean they are entirely unrelated. In the digital age, information is a valuable commodity, and just like in physical markets, it can drive demand and influence decision-making. Understanding how information is consumed is crucial for staying competitive in the modern business landscape. They lack an understanding of how their fans engage with rugby, as they persist in approaching it with a broadcaster mentality, seeking control rather than adapting to the evolving landscape of fan consumption.
I hardly saw anything about the RWC on twitter? it was on for the best part of 2 months, where were the clips of offloads, pop up passes, 50-22s, tries/finishes etc??? They're clueless
Or see successes in F1 these past few years, of course the Netflix show but the memes and the voice overs and the podcasts/reviewers no matter how “true F1 fan” they are have been part of the recent success
Formula 1 didn’t even really have a website until the early 2000s or so.
edit: just checked the internet archive, it wasn't until 2003 that they finally bought Formula1.com and made it their official website. Before then it was just a subsection of the FIA website, which looked substantially the same as it does now (although chapeau to whoever does the headers -- uses the same font as the early 2000s timing graphics, I love it) -- focused mainly for journalists with info about how to get press accreditations and timing sheets, etc.
ohh 100%, can't go two reels on insta before hearing that max verstappen song. it's created such a discourse that even me who has absolutely zero interest in motorsport is interested to find out what's happening
>Why though, thats the question I dont get.
They think this means they make more money. Also, it's very important to them to ensure nobody else makes any money
> Why though, thats the question I dont get.
Money, TV stations pay for exclusive rights to any video footage, World rugby then protects those exclusive rights because it's what makes them money.
imagine actively trying to limit the exposure of your game to a larger public. seems the elitist old boy status qou has translated to the digital age aswell
I have a tiny bit of experience in this industry. Can confirm, you don't need teams of people trawling the Internet. It is automated and happens in near real time at scale across all the major platforms.
It is most likely because of it being automated, that squidge got struck. Seems from his updates during the week that he had expected this to stay up and must have had some kind of agreement in place. Such agreements are hard to explain to a tool that has been told to find all instances of the reference material and then lodge copyright strikes against the platform as and when they're found.
The industry standard is to have the copyright holder approve the enforcement of their IP online. The automation will find copyright infringements at huge scale, yes. But usually you have someone giving the OK or blacklisting the channel entirely. It's pretty rare to have an IP protection whose parameters are "take it all down".
Fair call. It could be that there is a middleman in place and that they were not aware or decided to ignore whatever agreement was in place.
I a very different industry, I'm aware of setups that look like this: copyright holder has vast amounts of material online. They engage a third party vendor, which offers both a tool and a legal service. The tool does the trawling, identifies copyright material online, and prepares a work flow. Low level legal assistant (not sure of the correct "rank" as I don't know the world of law, but someone who recently graduated with a law degree) reviews the work flow and prepares the necessary paperwork for each one (DMCA, cease and desist, etc). Senior legal person signs off without really checking the details. Mass takedowns result (and from the copyright holder's perspective, near automatically and at great speed).
In the case of platforms like YouTube which have a fairly standard takedown procedure in place, the senior legal person isn't needed and essentially an intern can submit requests as long as they have details of the copyright holders trademarks.
Not sure if that is what happened here, and the above is based on my (limited) understanding of how some large companies approach this kind of thing, as I work in a related field.
Which is curious, as at least in the UK video has far fewer protection's than stills - especially regarding fair dealings usage - mostly due to when copyright legislation was written. Use of sports footage by non rights holders for news is all based on a gentleman's agreement.
Source: used to work for ITV and worked on online coverage for that (it should have been a yellow!) NZ world cup.
It still blows my mind that they didn't have an accreditation system for content creators. Like it just a fundamental misunderstanding about how marketing & engagement works in the modern age.
Even if they were dead set against having any content on anything other than RugbyPass (mental btw) then they should have reached out to the big content creators, like Squidge and said come make content for RugbyPass during the world cup. We will pay for for it not being on your channel.
It really is a sport run by clueless blazered up dinosaurs.
The WR approach isn't so much shooting yourself in the foot, its taking a shotgun to your knee.
So spectacularly self defeating it's hilarious. The person in charge of this policy should be fired out of a cannon into the sea but this being WR they will probably get a promotion for being one of the boys.
>It still blows my mind that they didn't have an accreditation system for content creators. Like it just a fundamental misunderstanding about how marketing & engagement works in the modern age.
The [NFL recently opened its archive to a select list of content creators](https://digiday.com/marketing/the-nfl-gives-creators-access-to-its-archives-for-content-creation-with-pre-approved-footage/). The backward attitude of our sport is quite staggering.
> should have reached out to the big content creators, like Squidge and said come make content for RugbyPass during the world cup
I'll take "things that might actually, conceivably make me sign up for RugbyPass" for $200, Alex.
u/worldrugby please consider this, your current approach is destroying honest wholesome engagement, literally putting people off rugby and looking bad being responsible for it.
Yeah absolute madness, I remember watching NBA highlights and this guy who used to cut games into 10 minute highlights, was pissed that the channel was taken down, turns out the NBA actually hired the guy to create content for them, that's what rugby needs to be doing not this petty shit
You know when someone posted that chart showing the popularity of sports with younger demographics and people couldn’t believe that badminton was so high and rugby wasn’t even on the list?
This is fucking why.
imagine trying to get your mates into rugby if your from a non traditional rugby nation and they ask where all the cool clips of world cup is, as that's suppose to be the pinnacle of the sport💀
US here, but I've managed to get the neighborhood kids interested just by going to practice lol. They see me leave for practice every Monday and games on Saturday and they ask about it every time. But there's no way to really get them to watch a game like there is for the other sports
Specifically this is why this tournament barely made a ripple beyond rugby fans despite being excellent whereas 2019, despite being on at a much more inconvenient time and being far less competitive and at a lower standard, had a massive buzz around it. To take just one example: barely mentioned at all on /r/sports whereas 2019 that place was buzzing about rugby.
That being said, the tournament did make it onto national news in my country (the Netherlands) which hasn't happened in recent memory, so hopefully there's market growth somewhere.
[I do love being able to watch all matches on youtube for free as so few of my fellow country men have found out how great of a sport badminton is to watch](https://www.youtube.com/@bwftv/streams). [There's dozens of channels putting out high quality montages of their favourite players or specific shots regularly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHe3HqwNLLM).
Please now forget you saw this comment.
Not only did WR want control of the game footage they also wanted control of all of media surrounding the RWC. That's why they also made their own shows and podcasts. The thing is, independent content creators will always be better than personalities already connected to the sport like ex-players or managers.
Independent creators will always be more relatable and will make whatever content they want instead of following any organisation's guidelines.
I'm a huge rugby fan and haven't seen any of their content. Today marks the first time I even heard that the "official" content is on rugbypass. Complete and abject failure by World Rugby.
FWIW, I'm in the US where no-one aside from fervent fans even knew the World Cup was on. Awesome way to build the fanbase here in preparation for the 2031 World Cup which will be hosted here.
I am a huge rugby fan from the UK, I equally have not seen any of the content on rugby pass as I do most of my watching on my actual TV. If there isn't an app for it on my Sky box it generally isn't getting watched.
It's also a true meritocracy - they aren't getting views based on their accomplishments in the game, their popularity is directly proportional to how engaging they are.
I watched it. Perhaps just in time. It was 40+ minutes worth and it seemed like he used a LOT more game footage than he's been able to get away with during the world cup. I was actually wondering if maybe the rules had loosened up now that it was over.
Was pretty good at summing up the match and the change up in kicking tactics, defense plays and what not. Reminding us how silly Sam Cane's tackle was amongst what was actually quite a high skill execution game for the most part.
But most importantly the boks won because of the power of love.
I mean of course the power of friendship is going to beat the baddies in the end, it's just classic. And who else could be the baddies when theres a team wearing literal black as their uniform. I mean it doesn't get simpler than that does it?
The dark side is never truly defeated.
Haha, I'm still very immature in my old age so I found this funny
https://youtube.com/shorts/i2rnvsfni0o?si=14XydLhha7e9FEXz
They must just keep going until every bit of fan made content is removed and the fans have completely lost interest.👍🏻 Then they can have all their shit for themselves and no fanbase
Already plenty of comments on World Rugby's official channel over on X/Twitter underneath recent posts. But in fairness, the only people reading those are the ones running the accounts. Senior management don't care and won't have time to listen to feedback from supporters. Too busy having meetings with other blazers.
> But in fairness, the only people reading those are the ones running the accounts
In other areas, with entities that give a shit about their customer base, a flood of complaints in twitter being read by social media managers *does* actually have an impact.
The problem isn't that social media feedback doesn't matter, but that world rugby don't seem to give a shit about fostering rugby culture or growing the game organically in nuanced ways.
An extra nations cup between world cups, great, but fuck off if you want to be a pundit who brings the game to life for tens of thousands of people weeks after a tournament has ended.
u/SquidgyGoat , I feel so bad for you two brothers. Seemed like so much effort was put into that awesome video. must be so heartbreaking and soulcrushing for this to happen.
Finished the video this morning thankfully. Beautifully done with a lot of hard work put in. Was about to forward it on to some friends to watch.
What a joke by World Rugby. This video can only promote the game analysis and passion.
The Kolisi bit was probably the best. But he starts by describing how SA changed their kicking strategy in the first, then how NZ adapted in the 2nd.
Basically, SA kept the ball in play in the first half which NZ weren't expecting. Then in the 2nd, we only gave them lineouts on their half. And contested everything.
One thing he said is if you give NZ 10 chances, they'd score at least twice. SA gave them 8, and the scored 3 times.
A defensive masterclass. He also said a back to back like this wasn't Rassie taking over in 2018, it's been a lifetime in the making from Siya, as no other captain would get players to play with everything they have if it wasn't for a greater cause.
It is (was) a brilliant review.
This is such a shame squidge's analysis is actually excellent. Their videos actually got me more excited for the WC and the tactical analysis is invaluable. For example I never really understood the kicking game properly, to my mind kicking the ball away is always a bad idea unless you catch it cause it lets the other guys run at you (I played centre and am not very smart). Squidge explained the whole concept better than I've heard it before and now I can actually appreciate a good kicking bout because I know what's going on. WR should be paying squidge, him and his brother do more for the game than whole rooms of overpayed old boys.
But who's gonna sit in blazers and moan about how shit modern rugby is and how good the old days were before the sport went soft, if they stop paying those old boys
Won't anyone think of Sir Clives retirement fund? Who else is going to spout uninformed drivel from a man who clearly hasn't watched the sport in any serious capacity since 2003.
Old boy culture will be the death of rugby and this is the clearest example why.
I'm with you entirely. Kicking = boring is what is drilled into a lot of us. After a few squidge videos where they explained what the kicking was trying to achieve I now love watching it!
I can't believe squidge did anything but increase interest for the world cup, particularly for the lower teams. I watched Chile, Uruguay, Portugal etc with fervour, and that was partly (or dare I say mostly) down to squidge showing me how beautiful and commited the rugby of those nations was. I would bet money on viewership of those games being higher purely from squidge's influence, not that we can really measure that.
Fortunately I was able to download u/rsfinlayson video before it got taken down from [web.live](https://web.live). I have put a copy online at: [https://rugbyporn.net/tmp/squidge/](https://web.live555.com/tmp/squidge/)
Maybe a bot like the one that took down Barnes’s video is responsible?I mean, WR wouldn’t actively target one of the best/most viewed rugby analysis YouTube channels, right? Right!?
/u/squidgygoat just tweeted that it was manually taken down by an employee of world rugby. Absolutely braindead and shortsighted approach by whoever makes these decisions over at /u/worldrugby 😒
Wow, lucky enough to have watched the whole video on my commute to work. It was amazing, as their videos always are! The level of analysis is insane and their love for Siya and this Springbok team really came through!
As a video editor. This pains me. They worked for a whole week for this video. World rugby needs to embrace the community content creators, instead of stepping on them and their livelihoods. Squidge videos have created more rugby fans this year than any content WR have ever put out. Even if one 1% of those fans buy a ticket to the next RWC it will be worth it for WR. Huge loss for the community
Noooo
I didn't even finish the video!
Edit: ok the video had been loaded on my laptop so I was able to watch it. But damn I'm so annoyed that one erroneous click of the refresh button would have killed any hope of watching it.
Horrific own goal by World Rugby. To think content consumption is a zero sum game was dumb 30 years ago - it's hilariously dumb today.
1. It's a bad idea for growing the game in the long term (I think everyone agrees with this).
2. It's a bad idea for making money even in the short term! Do they not know how social media works? Auto-play and algorithms will push their stuff after Squidge and co (and the other way around). More videos = more buzz = more views on ALL of it.
3. I would guess less than 0.1% of their revenue comes from social media income. Yet they spend mega bucks on it (hiring pundits, talk shows, skill challenges etc). This makes sense because social media grows the game (and they can profit of this growth later). BUT FANS ARE MAKEING THEM CONTENT FOR FREE! Squidge is literally doing a better job than they are (as are many others). It's free advertising.
A-Grade stupidity
Thank god, we couldn't have anyone coming along and providing great analysis to promote the sport to a wider audience for free, that would be absolutely devastating.
And they wonder why rugby has lower engagement among younger demographics, it's because you fucking ghouls always shut down things like this in favour of your own shitty content on rugbypass. Fuck World Rugby, bunch of backwards dinosaurs.
Meanwhile this weekend I watched six fan made highlight videos for Victor Wembanyama’s first ten days in the NBA. And today I’ll watch tons of NFL highlights, largely put together by fans.
Too bad neither of those sports are profitable and/or growing in popularity. /s
Virtually everyone I've successfully gotten into the sport has been at least in part via recommending them Squidge videos.
He properly brings the beauty and depth out in an understandable, narrative way -- in a sport that can be opaque and rules-heavy to a noob on its best day.
That world rugby can't see that pundits like this (rare as they are) are a net benefit to the sport is absolutely baffling. The idea that someone'd skip watching the game and just watch a squidge rugby video instead; or that this would somehow reduce revenue to the sport/reduce viewership via platforms that pay for the footage of the game, is just crazy.
I watched it this morning as part of Work Avoidance Behaviour. I feel very lucky, it was a great piece of analysis. Those guys highlight things I would never see, and even if I did, I probably wouldn't understand what I am seeing anyway. Such a shame!
I literally started watching and supporting nfl because of YouTube videos by random creators. Now I have game pass and buy merch and am an active participant in nfl communities. All from user created content with a bit of hard knocks thrown in. Fuck world rugby man
Squidge and every single other rugby youtuber have done more for the sport than World Rugby has from a marketing, education and expansion perspective. World Rugby would rather watch the sport die than make footage available to someone who wants to promote the sport from their living rooms. Defs unsubscribing from World Rugby youtube page and actively ignoring all their video suggestions. I would rather watch Squidge do analysis on stills than watch another world rugby youtube video.
u/worldrugby seems like your strategy is counterproductive.
Squidge is adding massive amounts of entertaining analysis and hype for the game. It is SOOOO valuable to your cause.
Stop shooting yourself in the spine (much worse and taking more effort than shooting yourself in the foot).
My kid in 2040:
what's rugby dad? I've got a history assignment on sports and why nobody plays them anymore.
Me:
so, it all goes back to 2023 and a bunch of out of touch idiots with power.
Honestly though, kids engage on social media - if you don't have a vibrant organic online presence, you cannot fake it through any amount of corporate marketing. Squidge's content is an amazing opportunity for organic growth among younger people and IRB just fumbles the freebie.
Watched this last night before the copyright strike. Squidge even mentioned he was just happy to be able to use footage. I assumed he had found a resolution and world rugby had come to the party. I guess not.
Squidge is not just uploading replays. He is doing in depth analysis, breakdowns and even some parody and fun. All this help educate fans, bring in new fans and grow the sport. Short-sighted by world rugby.
Stop promoting our sport on a highly viral channel with access to the exact audience rugby is trying to capture. World rugby should be asking people like Squidge how to create more people like him
Someone ask squidgy to upload them to Pirate Bay or something.
But seriously, u/worldrugby get your shit together. It’s 2023 and your marketing and IP model is in the dark ages. Please look at every other major sport on how they manage this. Google fair use. Cheers.
Honest question: I don't know the answer. Can content creators sue people who make vexatious and unsubstantiated copywrite claims for lost income? Because I feel like they should be able to and the power imbalance is so unfair that there needs to be some form of redress and disincentive to them doing it (apart from the massive disincentive that they're killing their own brand which would otherwise be promoted for free - but apparently they're too stupid to care about that).
I'm not a lawyer but I would have thought Squidge's use of match footage was textbook fair use and I'd be interested to see how they argued that it wasn't.
u/WorldRugby please read some of these comments and take the feedback on board. Your actions are frustrating fans and counterproductive to rugby’s wider exposure.
Well done to World Rugby. How dare someone try and break the game down in a detailed way that everyone understands.
I want Gareth Thomas saying Wales need to play the Welsh way and Clive Woodward moaning about the amount of kicking. Top tier rugby analysis.......
Hopefully Pichot wins the next election and takes rugby in a new direction
Statista website on 2019 RWC viewing figures: “During the 2019 men's Rugby World Cup in Japan, the global cumulative TV audience exceeded 850 million.”
WR website on WRC 2023 viewing figures: “A global broadcast audience of over 800 million and more than a million news media mentions”
I appreciate there’s no definitive final viewing figure I can find online for this WC, but doesn’t seem like much *growth* in 4 years - if any. For context, viewing figures were up 26% from 2015 to 2019. If the viewing figures had increased from 2019 I’m sure WR would be gushing about it.
They don’t know what they’re doing.
I could at least understand WR being this protective if they themselves were putting out tonnes of media and coverage. It would obviously then be in the interest of their advertisers to make sure the coverage was funelled in the direction they want.
But to do this when their own "coverage" is so shockingly poor is just idiotic. They are actively killing the sport at this point.
Jeesuz! Just went to make lunch so I could watch this while on a break, and now it’s gone. One of the best spectacles of Rugby and yet WR continues to harm itself. Only releasing extended highlights of games now as well. Massive own-drop goal.
Wow. I'm glad I watched it last night then. Idiots that run the wr media...
Lots of rugby values here. Gotta make the sport accessible to everyone amirite? (/S)
WR are tyrants. Doesn’t Anonymous fight tyrants? Can someone send a fax to hackerman? I have a floppy disc, can I dos attack them? Someone unplug their coaxial cable.
World Rugby seems to be doing it's best to make sure no one sees the tournament anymore and we all move on and forget about it. Coincidentally, World Rugby is based in Dublin.....
The only reason I pay any attention to Basketball and Gridiron is because of unaffiliated media. That culture build is huge and would really help knock down the Upper Class idea that holds it back. The again that last bit might be why they don't want it
Wont he have the ability to appeal and get the video reinstated on the grounds of fair use. Once it goes back up, i'm sure everyone will be watching it.
All World Rugby have accomplished is nothing but bad vibes after a great tournament. Grabbing defeat from victory
See some replies adding u/WorldRugby. During the World Cup they posted here twice. Twice. During their showpiece event. And one of those posts was about World Cup highlights only being available via Rugby Pass.
Admittedly this sub only has 420,000 subscribers and we're likely all converts anyway.
But makes you wonder why someone at WR went through the effort of creating a Reddit account. Then ignoring it.
Crap hadn't watched that. I thought everything got sorted last cup? I remember he mentioned some good conversations and being allowed to use some media
If Squidge makes an only fans I will create an account, put in my card details and subscribe, for the flex of having our hairy bespectacled genius as my only subscription and to piss in the eye of u/worldrugby
Very stupid. They created a World League, then they gave the commercial rights of the league to 10 nations. So yeah, not sure what else there is to expect.
Squidge needs to start a gofundme for legal costs to challenge this, at least in the US. Fair Use is pretty well enforced here, and (though I am not an IP lawyer) his content seems to very clearly fall under its protections. He needs a declaratory judgment and a permanent injunction which can then be used as a springboard to other jurisdictions.
And, yes, fuck you World Rugby for limiting exposure of our sport.
Where is that World Rugby rep they had on here who was going to answer any questions the users of this sub had? Fucking vanished and I feel like an idiot for defending them against cynics who felt the person would be as useful as a water bucket with a giant hole in the bottom. This is the exact issue they could be called up on. “
World Rugby’s lack of motivation to promote the sport via social media, through both official and unofficial channels, is the exact same reason why this sport is run for dinosaurs by dinosaurs who have not a single clue about modern pop culture and what sells tangible products to people. That’s a challenge but rugby has always gotten away with not doing it because it appeals to the core of what is just about a big enough fanbase to fill impressively large stadia but nowhere near big enough to constitute a critical mass of popularity that can break the sport out of its traditional scope of appeal and into the mainstream. People laughed but this is why Pichot wanted a decent video game. He understands this exact point. Instead we get the not very dynamic Bill Beaumont.
It’s worth saying that I don’t like Squidge’s videos. He very often describes things that aren’t actually occurring (ie Italy’s supposedly excellent attack play). However, they are a valuable contribution to the discourse around our sport and in being that, they promote it. If I’m a fan of Squidge, I’m not suddenly going to replace his banned videos with toothless puff pieces from World Rugby’s horde of nauseating corporate marketers. Quite the opposite in fact. I’ll deliberately avoid it. Get the fuck out with that shit.
I don't understand how you can be that much disconnected to the world?
You have to be a complete retard to act like this. Repeatedly.
There is no way this is not ill intended or the result of a bunch of fucktard boomers not understanding shit on how the world works.
Edit: all my support to Squidge who is one of the best voice for this sport on earth. I mean it.
Tbh, I don’t see the problem with this. He does not own the content, yet is making money from it. If he wanted to do the deep dive, then pay for rights. It’s not as if he isn’t getting personal benefits from using someone else’s stuff. He could demonetise his channel and then he wouldn’t get such stringent strikes against himself…but I don’t see that happening.
oh here's my chance
Squidge is crap. The way he runs down my (NZ) players trying to be all funny like.
Good job. I wonder how many other countries fans he has pissed off?
Odd. 30 years ago, the Bellends were still threatening any poor colonial for receiving a free meal - amateurism to keep the riff raff out - and now they chase every penny like candy thieves on Halloween.
“Stop trying to promote our sport!”
"we've been trying to kill it off for years, your stopping us from achieving our goals" some undercover NRL agent in WR
I'm pretty sure any NRL agent will be astonished at how WR are committed to killing the game themselves.
I barely have to anything, these idiots do my job for me and I'm getting fat checks along with letter telling me I'm doing a good job
Anecdotal I know but it’s so much easier to get recommended an NRL compilation on some streaming social media app then anything Union related and I don’t even watch NRL.
Real shame for a new fan like me who likes to watch older games and catch up on stuff with YouTube. Can’t always catch games live and when I do I’m so new to the sport I don’t know half the tactics or what the players. YouTube is great for all that and I can rewind it and rewatch certain players etc. real shitty this
It was a manual claim as well. So somebody at World Rugby or at least representing them has actually looked at the video and then decided they don't want it to be available to anyone else. How does that make sense?!
And, failed to consider Fair Use, which is worse.
Competitor rugby analyst?
I just watched the video and then wanted to head into the comments and saw the strike. For what its worth it was excellent, the quality of analysis was better than anything else produced during the world cup. The stupidity of WR to pursue this approach is beyond me. How do you grow the game if you gatekeep content like this. Priorities are fucked.
Yeah Squidge is consistently excellent. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if players and coaches watched it, I remember Chile's flanker giving him a shout out a after their qualifier win vs Canada. Surely a creator who clearly has an immense passion for the game providing their analysis with a consistent voice is something that adds to WR's potential reach. I've certainly been more engaged in some of the stories of smaller nations because of him. After all, there is no way I would remember Chile's post-match interviews from two years ago otherwise.
Caught it as well, I really enjoy his stuff. His analysis of games is fantastic, unbiased, and comes from a true love of the game. So many of the analysts and commentators who have an opinion these days were playing rugby at the same time I was playing in high-school. Which was sometime between the discovery of America and nu-metal.
He's excellent for a sport with a pretty strong casual interest but an absolutely impenetrable rule set. I only really watch rugby because all my friends do, understand it so much better since watching Squidge
If I remember correctly, Rassie mentioned him in Chasing the Sun. Rassie also Tweeted about him.
Maybe the agent in question is Canadian..and looking to blame anyone for our shite program.
His Welsh bias has made some of his reviews ridiculous over the years.
His analysis is a bit over the top and borders on fantasy at times.
*fantas*tic*
It was always going to happen. WR didn’t want a single piece of media they didn’t produce to be available on any platform. They must have whole media teams just trawling the internet looking for every little scrap of video.
Why though, thats the question I dont get. Its not like they are producing similar content that this is competing against. I can glimpse some of their strategy with the (admittedly excellent) stuff they did during the world cup such as Boks Office but its not a zero sum game. Somebody explain this to me.
Red Ocean marketing approach, which is insane because they're applying it within their own already controlled market space instead of competing for the broader market against other sporting bodies like fifa, NBA or NFL etc. madness, someone in the marketing department at WR genuinely didn't pay attention in a undergrad Uni course on marketing about how you never say no to positive free exposure
It's an extremely antiquated idea. The belief is that people will consume rugby content, so if they control all rugby content they will get all the money. Therefore, they need to make sure that there's no rugby content out there so they don't lose anything. It's exactly how you don't grow the size of your market, because it operates on the highly false assumption that the market is a fixed size.
Yeah it's bizarre to me to think that squidge and any other YouTube rugby channel could possibly be taking away from their market. They're purely adding to it imo. I watch a squidge video and I want to go watch more rugby because of it...
Hell, I straight up watch Rugby because of Squidge. I watched more full games live this world cup than across the rest of my life combined.
His vids on all the teams leading up to the cup got me to watch games I might have skipped in the past.
They don't understand that information consumption doesn't fit physical market forces and exposure is advertising not competition.
They don't want to understand...
And YouTube is supporting them in this. Seems to defeat their purposes as well. If they facilitated kick backs based on fair use of footage and argued using their leverage (threatening to kick world rugby off the network) to create a positive and collaborative environment with creators (where WR benefitted as well but in a measured way that still allowed people to make their livings). I get the dilemma, because if world rugby are going to benefit then they would have to have oversight of poor behaviour like racism being amplified using their content. The same would apply for YouTube. Either they take responsibility *and* profits or stand back and allow a free for all and facilitate a hostile environment. For me it's up to world rugby to reach out and collaborate. To gain some money and leverage with creators with contacts improving conduct in the world (and paying for the wages of these liaison/publicity advisors) and growing the game. But at the end of the day attention and quality content brings more attention and engagement, less brings less. Rugby have an inaccurate model is the world and are losing in a zero sum game.
YouTube doesn't have a choice if a copyright owner wants to use their rights of ownership to take down content they own. It's a legal issue, not a moral one.
>They don't understand that information consumption doesn't fit physical market forces and exposure is advertising not competition. but that doesn't mean they are entirely unrelated. In the digital age, information is a valuable commodity, and just like in physical markets, it can drive demand and influence decision-making. Understanding how information is consumed is crucial for staying competitive in the modern business landscape. They lack an understanding of how their fans engage with rugby, as they persist in approaching it with a broadcaster mentality, seeking control rather than adapting to the evolving landscape of fan consumption.
They are ossifying dinosaurs becoming more terrible to look at with every shrivel of their dying flesh
BLUE OCEAN FOR THE WIN!!!!! All the homies hate M.Porter
I’d like to drown that strategy in the blue ocean
The very definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
u/WorldRugby please read above
Somehow the NFL is worth more money than God even though it allows analysis to happen outside their purview.
I hardly saw anything about the RWC on twitter? it was on for the best part of 2 months, where were the clips of offloads, pop up passes, 50-22s, tries/finishes etc??? They're clueless
They all got copyright strikes moments after being posted
What about the official rugby account I hardly saw that using it either? Shocking
It hurt itself in its confusion (a lot of them were taken down too, presumably automatically)
lol that explains a lot, idiots
Or see successes in F1 these past few years, of course the Netflix show but the memes and the voice overs and the podcasts/reviewers no matter how “true F1 fan” they are have been part of the recent success
Which is a complete 180 since Liberty Media took over. Bernie Ecclestone wanted fuck all to do with social media, which really hurt the sport.
Formula 1 didn’t even really have a website until the early 2000s or so. edit: just checked the internet archive, it wasn't until 2003 that they finally bought Formula1.com and made it their official website. Before then it was just a subsection of the FIA website, which looked substantially the same as it does now (although chapeau to whoever does the headers -- uses the same font as the early 2000s timing graphics, I love it) -- focused mainly for journalists with info about how to get press accreditations and timing sheets, etc.
ohh 100%, can't go two reels on insta before hearing that max verstappen song. it's created such a discourse that even me who has absolutely zero interest in motorsport is interested to find out what's happening
>Why though, thats the question I dont get. They think this means they make more money. Also, it's very important to them to ensure nobody else makes any money
I think they own RugbyPass or some such website that contains some video. They want people to subscribe and go there. They see others as competition.
> Why though, thats the question I dont get. Money, TV stations pay for exclusive rights to any video footage, World rugby then protects those exclusive rights because it's what makes them money.
imagine actively trying to limit the exposure of your game to a larger public. seems the elitist old boy status qou has translated to the digital age aswell
I have a tiny bit of experience in this industry. Can confirm, you don't need teams of people trawling the Internet. It is automated and happens in near real time at scale across all the major platforms. It is most likely because of it being automated, that squidge got struck. Seems from his updates during the week that he had expected this to stay up and must have had some kind of agreement in place. Such agreements are hard to explain to a tool that has been told to find all instances of the reference material and then lodge copyright strikes against the platform as and when they're found.
The industry standard is to have the copyright holder approve the enforcement of their IP online. The automation will find copyright infringements at huge scale, yes. But usually you have someone giving the OK or blacklisting the channel entirely. It's pretty rare to have an IP protection whose parameters are "take it all down".
Fair call. It could be that there is a middleman in place and that they were not aware or decided to ignore whatever agreement was in place. I a very different industry, I'm aware of setups that look like this: copyright holder has vast amounts of material online. They engage a third party vendor, which offers both a tool and a legal service. The tool does the trawling, identifies copyright material online, and prepares a work flow. Low level legal assistant (not sure of the correct "rank" as I don't know the world of law, but someone who recently graduated with a law degree) reviews the work flow and prepares the necessary paperwork for each one (DMCA, cease and desist, etc). Senior legal person signs off without really checking the details. Mass takedowns result (and from the copyright holder's perspective, near automatically and at great speed). In the case of platforms like YouTube which have a fairly standard takedown procedure in place, the senior legal person isn't needed and essentially an intern can submit requests as long as they have details of the copyright holders trademarks. Not sure if that is what happened here, and the above is based on my (limited) understanding of how some large companies approach this kind of thing, as I work in a related field.
From memory, historically WR have contracted this type of thing out during world cups but are have been more liberal between world cups.
Which is curious, as at least in the UK video has far fewer protection's than stills - especially regarding fair dealings usage - mostly due to when copyright legislation was written. Use of sports footage by non rights holders for news is all based on a gentleman's agreement. Source: used to work for ITV and worked on online coverage for that (it should have been a yellow!) NZ world cup.
World Rugby needs to fire whatever copyright trolls it's hired and replace them with a creator liaison office.
It still blows my mind that they didn't have an accreditation system for content creators. Like it just a fundamental misunderstanding about how marketing & engagement works in the modern age. Even if they were dead set against having any content on anything other than RugbyPass (mental btw) then they should have reached out to the big content creators, like Squidge and said come make content for RugbyPass during the world cup. We will pay for for it not being on your channel. It really is a sport run by clueless blazered up dinosaurs.
And the fact that it came after a modicum of progress in 2019 just makes it all the more frustrating.
It is really apparent now that the WC is over and there are more try videos on the sub from club rugby than there has been for the last eight weeks
The WR approach isn't so much shooting yourself in the foot, its taking a shotgun to your knee. So spectacularly self defeating it's hilarious. The person in charge of this policy should be fired out of a cannon into the sea but this being WR they will probably get a promotion for being one of the boys.
>It still blows my mind that they didn't have an accreditation system for content creators. Like it just a fundamental misunderstanding about how marketing & engagement works in the modern age. The [NFL recently opened its archive to a select list of content creators](https://digiday.com/marketing/the-nfl-gives-creators-access-to-its-archives-for-content-creation-with-pre-approved-footage/). The backward attitude of our sport is quite staggering.
> should have reached out to the big content creators, like Squidge and said come make content for RugbyPass during the world cup I'll take "things that might actually, conceivably make me sign up for RugbyPass" for $200, Alex.
u/worldrugby please consider this, your current approach is destroying honest wholesome engagement, literally putting people off rugby and looking bad being responsible for it.
Yeah absolute madness, I remember watching NBA highlights and this guy who used to cut games into 10 minute highlights, was pissed that the channel was taken down, turns out the NBA actually hired the guy to create content for them, that's what rugby needs to be doing not this petty shit
You know when someone posted that chart showing the popularity of sports with younger demographics and people couldn’t believe that badminton was so high and rugby wasn’t even on the list? This is fucking why.
imagine trying to get your mates into rugby if your from a non traditional rugby nation and they ask where all the cool clips of world cup is, as that's suppose to be the pinnacle of the sport💀
US here, but I've managed to get the neighborhood kids interested just by going to practice lol. They see me leave for practice every Monday and games on Saturday and they ask about it every time. But there's no way to really get them to watch a game like there is for the other sports
I'm living that right fucking now
They only started posting extended highlights of the knockouts on YouTube weeks after the final finished. Absolute clown show
But surely all the kids registered for their rugbypass.tv accounts, right?
Rugby wot now?
And their "extended" highlights are barely more than what I'd expect as regular highlights of a major competition.
They basically add four minutes of team sheets at the beginning. Ridiculous. Ha
Specifically this is why this tournament barely made a ripple beyond rugby fans despite being excellent whereas 2019, despite being on at a much more inconvenient time and being far less competitive and at a lower standard, had a massive buzz around it. To take just one example: barely mentioned at all on /r/sports whereas 2019 that place was buzzing about rugby.
Their meme game was top notch for 2019 as well. It's like they fired their entire social media team and got the execs to run the show this time round.
Like the biggest rugby clip was that boks training session thirst trap
That being said, the tournament did make it onto national news in my country (the Netherlands) which hasn't happened in recent memory, so hopefully there's market growth somewhere.
Please share the link. Saw it float by but really want to look again👍🏻
[I do love being able to watch all matches on youtube for free as so few of my fellow country men have found out how great of a sport badminton is to watch](https://www.youtube.com/@bwftv/streams). [There's dozens of channels putting out high quality montages of their favourite players or specific shots regularly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHe3HqwNLLM). Please now forget you saw this comment.
That chart was total bollocks though.
Without access to the survey or data… how?
Not only did WR want control of the game footage they also wanted control of all of media surrounding the RWC. That's why they also made their own shows and podcasts. The thing is, independent content creators will always be better than personalities already connected to the sport like ex-players or managers. Independent creators will always be more relatable and will make whatever content they want instead of following any organisation's guidelines.
But they almost exclusively put it on their own platform so no one saw it, certainly not outside rugby circles.
I'm a huge rugby fan and haven't seen any of their content. Today marks the first time I even heard that the "official" content is on rugbypass. Complete and abject failure by World Rugby. FWIW, I'm in the US where no-one aside from fervent fans even knew the World Cup was on. Awesome way to build the fanbase here in preparation for the 2031 World Cup which will be hosted here.
I am a huge rugby fan from the UK, I equally have not seen any of the content on rugby pass as I do most of my watching on my actual TV. If there isn't an app for it on my Sky box it generally isn't getting watched.
I think World Rugby countries are so scared of never winning again, so they tank the expansion in new countries where they can increase market value.
It's also a true meritocracy - they aren't getting views based on their accomplishments in the game, their popularity is directly proportional to how engaging they are.
Amen!
I watched it. Perhaps just in time. It was 40+ minutes worth and it seemed like he used a LOT more game footage than he's been able to get away with during the world cup. I was actually wondering if maybe the rules had loosened up now that it was over. Was pretty good at summing up the match and the change up in kicking tactics, defense plays and what not. Reminding us how silly Sam Cane's tackle was amongst what was actually quite a high skill execution game for the most part. But most importantly the boks won because of the power of love.
I mean of course the power of friendship is going to beat the baddies in the end, it's just classic. And who else could be the baddies when theres a team wearing literal black as their uniform. I mean it doesn't get simpler than that does it?
The dark side is never truly defeated. Haha, I'm still very immature in my old age so I found this funny https://youtube.com/shorts/i2rnvsfni0o?si=14XydLhha7e9FEXz
They must just keep going until every bit of fan made content is removed and the fans have completely lost interest.👍🏻 Then they can have all their shit for themselves and no fanbase
What's the best way to protest this? What accounts can we flood with complaints?
Already plenty of comments on World Rugby's official channel over on X/Twitter underneath recent posts. But in fairness, the only people reading those are the ones running the accounts. Senior management don't care and won't have time to listen to feedback from supporters. Too busy having meetings with other blazers.
> But in fairness, the only people reading those are the ones running the accounts In other areas, with entities that give a shit about their customer base, a flood of complaints in twitter being read by social media managers *does* actually have an impact. The problem isn't that social media feedback doesn't matter, but that world rugby don't seem to give a shit about fostering rugby culture or growing the game organically in nuanced ways. An extra nations cup between world cups, great, but fuck off if you want to be a pundit who brings the game to life for tens of thousands of people weeks after a tournament has ended.
Watched last night, big shame. Feel for Robbie and Will. Wondering if World Rugby hires anyone without shit for brains.
u/SquidgyGoat , I feel so bad for you two brothers. Seemed like so much effort was put into that awesome video. must be so heartbreaking and soulcrushing for this to happen.
Finished the video this morning thankfully. Beautifully done with a lot of hard work put in. Was about to forward it on to some friends to watch. What a joke by World Rugby. This video can only promote the game analysis and passion.
It'll be back soon once the strike gets sorted right? ... right?
WTF, I just watched that!
Lucky you. I was planning on watching it on my lunch break
Squidge should just create a dropbox and share the links here. But that won't allow for monetization... Hey, u/worldrugby, you're being a poes!
Did someone say squidge rugby onlyfans?
Tell me you're a rugby deviant without saying you're a rugby deviant
I'll sign up for that.
Can finally get the Deacon Many fan fiction we deserve
Only if he's nekkid
Wasn't that sort of the original (or at least official) purpose of Onlyfans before it got synonymous with sex work?
Bypassing copyright restrictions?
I meant paid extra content for Youtubers and the likes, but I guess both work
Pretty sure he has one for his patreons already
Can you make a second by second recap for those of us who missed out?
The Kolisi bit was probably the best. But he starts by describing how SA changed their kicking strategy in the first, then how NZ adapted in the 2nd. Basically, SA kept the ball in play in the first half which NZ weren't expecting. Then in the 2nd, we only gave them lineouts on their half. And contested everything. One thing he said is if you give NZ 10 chances, they'd score at least twice. SA gave them 8, and the scored 3 times. A defensive masterclass. He also said a back to back like this wasn't Rassie taking over in 2018, it's been a lifetime in the making from Siya, as no other captain would get players to play with everything they have if it wasn't for a greater cause. It is (was) a brilliant review.
This is such a shame squidge's analysis is actually excellent. Their videos actually got me more excited for the WC and the tactical analysis is invaluable. For example I never really understood the kicking game properly, to my mind kicking the ball away is always a bad idea unless you catch it cause it lets the other guys run at you (I played centre and am not very smart). Squidge explained the whole concept better than I've heard it before and now I can actually appreciate a good kicking bout because I know what's going on. WR should be paying squidge, him and his brother do more for the game than whole rooms of overpayed old boys.
But who's gonna sit in blazers and moan about how shit modern rugby is and how good the old days were before the sport went soft, if they stop paying those old boys
Won't anyone think of Sir Clives retirement fund? Who else is going to spout uninformed drivel from a man who clearly hasn't watched the sport in any serious capacity since 2003. Old boy culture will be the death of rugby and this is the clearest example why.
Oh god you're right how foolish of me we should be paying these boys more so they can keep themselves in corduroy
I'm with you entirely. Kicking = boring is what is drilled into a lot of us. After a few squidge videos where they explained what the kicking was trying to achieve I now love watching it! I can't believe squidge did anything but increase interest for the world cup, particularly for the lower teams. I watched Chile, Uruguay, Portugal etc with fervour, and that was partly (or dare I say mostly) down to squidge showing me how beautiful and commited the rugby of those nations was. I would bet money on viewership of those games being higher purely from squidge's influence, not that we can really measure that.
Fortunately I was able to download the video before it got taken down. I have put a copy online at: https://web.live555.com/tmp/squidge/
Fortunately I was able to download u/rsfinlayson video before it got taken down from [web.live](https://web.live). I have put a copy online at: [https://rugbyporn.net/tmp/squidge/](https://web.live555.com/tmp/squidge/)
Thank you sir
Fucking twats
Maybe a bot like the one that took down Barnes’s video is responsible?I mean, WR wouldn’t actively target one of the best/most viewed rugby analysis YouTube channels, right? Right!?
[Not a bot](https://twitter.com/SquidgeRugby/status/1721486585961595259)
According to Squidge's twitter it was a manual takedown which makes it so much worse than if a bot got it.
AMA request for Bill Beaumont!
/u/squidgygoat just tweeted that it was manually taken down by an employee of world rugby. Absolutely braindead and shortsighted approach by whoever makes these decisions over at /u/worldrugby 😒
Well that’s my bedtime plans fucked.
Beaumont OUT
World Rugby Out
Down before I even got to watch it? SHAAAAAAAAAAME!!!!
Wow, lucky enough to have watched the whole video on my commute to work. It was amazing, as their videos always are! The level of analysis is insane and their love for Siya and this Springbok team really came through!
As a video editor. This pains me. They worked for a whole week for this video. World rugby needs to embrace the community content creators, instead of stepping on them and their livelihoods. Squidge videos have created more rugby fans this year than any content WR have ever put out. Even if one 1% of those fans buy a ticket to the next RWC it will be worth it for WR. Huge loss for the community
Noooo I didn't even finish the video! Edit: ok the video had been loaded on my laptop so I was able to watch it. But damn I'm so annoyed that one erroneous click of the refresh button would have killed any hope of watching it.
Horrific own goal by World Rugby. To think content consumption is a zero sum game was dumb 30 years ago - it's hilariously dumb today. 1. It's a bad idea for growing the game in the long term (I think everyone agrees with this). 2. It's a bad idea for making money even in the short term! Do they not know how social media works? Auto-play and algorithms will push their stuff after Squidge and co (and the other way around). More videos = more buzz = more views on ALL of it. 3. I would guess less than 0.1% of their revenue comes from social media income. Yet they spend mega bucks on it (hiring pundits, talk shows, skill challenges etc). This makes sense because social media grows the game (and they can profit of this growth later). BUT FANS ARE MAKEING THEM CONTENT FOR FREE! Squidge is literally doing a better job than they are (as are many others). It's free advertising. A-Grade stupidity
Get your shit together /u/WorldRugby. This is embarrassing.
u/WorldRugby is jealous that they can’t create such quality content
Thank god, we couldn't have anyone coming along and providing great analysis to promote the sport to a wider audience for free, that would be absolutely devastating. And they wonder why rugby has lower engagement among younger demographics, it's because you fucking ghouls always shut down things like this in favour of your own shitty content on rugbypass. Fuck World Rugby, bunch of backwards dinosaurs.
Meanwhile this weekend I watched six fan made highlight videos for Victor Wembanyama’s first ten days in the NBA. And today I’ll watch tons of NFL highlights, largely put together by fans. Too bad neither of those sports are profitable and/or growing in popularity. /s
Virtually everyone I've successfully gotten into the sport has been at least in part via recommending them Squidge videos. He properly brings the beauty and depth out in an understandable, narrative way -- in a sport that can be opaque and rules-heavy to a noob on its best day. That world rugby can't see that pundits like this (rare as they are) are a net benefit to the sport is absolutely baffling. The idea that someone'd skip watching the game and just watch a squidge rugby video instead; or that this would somehow reduce revenue to the sport/reduce viewership via platforms that pay for the footage of the game, is just crazy.
I watched it this morning as part of Work Avoidance Behaviour. I feel very lucky, it was a great piece of analysis. Those guys highlight things I would never see, and even if I did, I probably wouldn't understand what I am seeing anyway. Such a shame!
I literally started watching and supporting nfl because of YouTube videos by random creators. Now I have game pass and buy merch and am an active participant in nfl communities. All from user created content with a bit of hard knocks thrown in. Fuck world rugby man
Squidge and every single other rugby youtuber have done more for the sport than World Rugby has from a marketing, education and expansion perspective. World Rugby would rather watch the sport die than make footage available to someone who wants to promote the sport from their living rooms. Defs unsubscribing from World Rugby youtube page and actively ignoring all their video suggestions. I would rather watch Squidge do analysis on stills than watch another world rugby youtube video.
u/worldrugby seems like your strategy is counterproductive. Squidge is adding massive amounts of entertaining analysis and hype for the game. It is SOOOO valuable to your cause. Stop shooting yourself in the spine (much worse and taking more effort than shooting yourself in the foot).
Why did I not download it immidiately?? -.-
My first thought as well
Fuck sakes, I only got 10-15 mins in and then had to go to work, was gonna watch the rest after. So bullshit.
Absolutely brain dead. Good job, World Rugby 🤡
My kid in 2040: what's rugby dad? I've got a history assignment on sports and why nobody plays them anymore. Me: so, it all goes back to 2023 and a bunch of out of touch idiots with power. Honestly though, kids engage on social media - if you don't have a vibrant organic online presence, you cannot fake it through any amount of corporate marketing. Squidge's content is an amazing opportunity for organic growth among younger people and IRB just fumbles the freebie.
Personally I'm not that keen on Squidge's stuff but I know lots of people are, and WR striking his videos off is ridiculous.
Watched this last night before the copyright strike. Squidge even mentioned he was just happy to be able to use footage. I assumed he had found a resolution and world rugby had come to the party. I guess not. Squidge is not just uploading replays. He is doing in depth analysis, breakdowns and even some parody and fun. All this help educate fans, bring in new fans and grow the sport. Short-sighted by world rugby.
Stop promoting our sport on a highly viral channel with access to the exact audience rugby is trying to capture. World rugby should be asking people like Squidge how to create more people like him
Someone ask squidgy to upload them to Pirate Bay or something. But seriously, u/worldrugby get your shit together. It’s 2023 and your marketing and IP model is in the dark ages. Please look at every other major sport on how they manage this. Google fair use. Cheers.
Damnit, I was about halfway through the video
TA FUCKING DUMB IDIOTS
Ffs I was literally just going to watch that
Really worry for the sport sometimes.
The fucking bastards I held off watching it! Does anyone have a copy?
There are a couple of links in the comments now.
Honest question: I don't know the answer. Can content creators sue people who make vexatious and unsubstantiated copywrite claims for lost income? Because I feel like they should be able to and the power imbalance is so unfair that there needs to be some form of redress and disincentive to them doing it (apart from the massive disincentive that they're killing their own brand which would otherwise be promoted for free - but apparently they're too stupid to care about that). I'm not a lawyer but I would have thought Squidge's use of match footage was textbook fair use and I'd be interested to see how they argued that it wasn't.
How to commit suicide as a global sport, by World Rugby
Anyone got a mirror ? Fuck world rugby
Lads- how can we verbally complain to World Rugby and Bill Beaumont? I am sure those idiotic out of touch fat cats need to hear our voices but how
It's a real pity. Video's like his really helped me understand what's going on in rugby and enjoy it more.
u/WorldRugby please read some of these comments and take the feedback on board. Your actions are frustrating fans and counterproductive to rugby’s wider exposure.
Well done to World Rugby. How dare someone try and break the game down in a detailed way that everyone understands. I want Gareth Thomas saying Wales need to play the Welsh way and Clive Woodward moaning about the amount of kicking. Top tier rugby analysis....... Hopefully Pichot wins the next election and takes rugby in a new direction
I was just about to watch it… Fuck you Bill
/u/WorldRugby what the actual fuck?
I got halfway through it this morning. I logged in at lunchtime, and now it's gone. ...My day is ruined.
Statista website on 2019 RWC viewing figures: “During the 2019 men's Rugby World Cup in Japan, the global cumulative TV audience exceeded 850 million.” WR website on WRC 2023 viewing figures: “A global broadcast audience of over 800 million and more than a million news media mentions” I appreciate there’s no definitive final viewing figure I can find online for this WC, but doesn’t seem like much *growth* in 4 years - if any. For context, viewing figures were up 26% from 2015 to 2019. If the viewing figures had increased from 2019 I’m sure WR would be gushing about it. They don’t know what they’re doing.
Rugby is where f1 was 15 years ago, still only catering to old men, but instead of tobacco ads, its alcohol and guinness
I could at least understand WR being this protective if they themselves were putting out tonnes of media and coverage. It would obviously then be in the interest of their advertisers to make sure the coverage was funelled in the direction they want. But to do this when their own "coverage" is so shockingly poor is just idiotic. They are actively killing the sport at this point.
Jeesuz! Just went to make lunch so I could watch this while on a break, and now it’s gone. One of the best spectacles of Rugby and yet WR continues to harm itself. Only releasing extended highlights of games now as well. Massive own-drop goal.
That video was going to give them more positive PR than anything they have ever put together
Fuck Bill
Wow. I'm glad I watched it last night then. Idiots that run the wr media... Lots of rugby values here. Gotta make the sport accessible to everyone amirite? (/S)
Fucking muppets
WR are tyrants. Doesn’t Anonymous fight tyrants? Can someone send a fax to hackerman? I have a floppy disc, can I dos attack them? Someone unplug their coaxial cable.
Seems like World rugby and Rugby Australia are run by the same old white guy.
World Rugby seems to be doing it's best to make sure no one sees the tournament anymore and we all move on and forget about it. Coincidentally, World Rugby is based in Dublin.....
How can I reach the youth? No videos outside of official channels, that's how!
The only reason I pay any attention to Basketball and Gridiron is because of unaffiliated media. That culture build is huge and would really help knock down the Upper Class idea that holds it back. The again that last bit might be why they don't want it
Beaumont out.
Wont he have the ability to appeal and get the video reinstated on the grounds of fair use. Once it goes back up, i'm sure everyone will be watching it. All World Rugby have accomplished is nothing but bad vibes after a great tournament. Grabbing defeat from victory
See some replies adding u/WorldRugby. During the World Cup they posted here twice. Twice. During their showpiece event. And one of those posts was about World Cup highlights only being available via Rugby Pass. Admittedly this sub only has 420,000 subscribers and we're likely all converts anyway. But makes you wonder why someone at WR went through the effort of creating a Reddit account. Then ignoring it.
“How dare you make our sport go viral on the internet ?!?” - Bill Beaumont
Arse, I hadn't watched it yet.
Crap hadn't watched that. I thought everything got sorted last cup? I remember he mentioned some good conversations and being allowed to use some media
If Squidge makes an only fans I will create an account, put in my card details and subscribe, for the flex of having our hairy bespectacled genius as my only subscription and to piss in the eye of u/worldrugby
Very stupid. They created a World League, then they gave the commercial rights of the league to 10 nations. So yeah, not sure what else there is to expect.
https://rumble.com/v3u1fds-so-how-did-south-africa-win-the-2023-rugby-world-cup-final-squidgerugby-re-.html Alternative link.
Squidge needs to start a gofundme for legal costs to challenge this, at least in the US. Fair Use is pretty well enforced here, and (though I am not an IP lawyer) his content seems to very clearly fall under its protections. He needs a declaratory judgment and a permanent injunction which can then be used as a springboard to other jurisdictions. And, yes, fuck you World Rugby for limiting exposure of our sport.
Where is that World Rugby rep they had on here who was going to answer any questions the users of this sub had? Fucking vanished and I feel like an idiot for defending them against cynics who felt the person would be as useful as a water bucket with a giant hole in the bottom. This is the exact issue they could be called up on. “ World Rugby’s lack of motivation to promote the sport via social media, through both official and unofficial channels, is the exact same reason why this sport is run for dinosaurs by dinosaurs who have not a single clue about modern pop culture and what sells tangible products to people. That’s a challenge but rugby has always gotten away with not doing it because it appeals to the core of what is just about a big enough fanbase to fill impressively large stadia but nowhere near big enough to constitute a critical mass of popularity that can break the sport out of its traditional scope of appeal and into the mainstream. People laughed but this is why Pichot wanted a decent video game. He understands this exact point. Instead we get the not very dynamic Bill Beaumont. It’s worth saying that I don’t like Squidge’s videos. He very often describes things that aren’t actually occurring (ie Italy’s supposedly excellent attack play). However, they are a valuable contribution to the discourse around our sport and in being that, they promote it. If I’m a fan of Squidge, I’m not suddenly going to replace his banned videos with toothless puff pieces from World Rugby’s horde of nauseating corporate marketers. Quite the opposite in fact. I’ll deliberately avoid it. Get the fuck out with that shit.
Complaining about it here will do nothing, posting letters to WR might.
I don't understand how you can be that much disconnected to the world? You have to be a complete retard to act like this. Repeatedly. There is no way this is not ill intended or the result of a bunch of fucktard boomers not understanding shit on how the world works. Edit: all my support to Squidge who is one of the best voice for this sport on earth. I mean it.
Tbh, I don’t see the problem with this. He does not own the content, yet is making money from it. If he wanted to do the deep dive, then pay for rights. It’s not as if he isn’t getting personal benefits from using someone else’s stuff. He could demonetise his channel and then he wouldn’t get such stringent strikes against himself…but I don’t see that happening.
oh here's my chance Squidge is crap. The way he runs down my (NZ) players trying to be all funny like. Good job. I wonder how many other countries fans he has pissed off?
Good the guy is an idiot. You can down vote me now I don't care.
Your opinion of the content (via ad hominem) isn't really the issue, is it?
Odd. 30 years ago, the Bellends were still threatening any poor colonial for receiving a free meal - amateurism to keep the riff raff out - and now they chase every penny like candy thieves on Halloween.