Six Nations in TV talks Sky could take matches off terrestrial channels
Senior source admits nothing being ruled out Beaumont says growth needs new audiences
Six Nations matches could go behind a paywall for the first time in two decades after next season.
The Daily Telegraph understands that tournament officials are openminded about moving the event away from terrestrial broadcasters as they prepare to enter negotiations over the next rights deal.
However, Six Nations chief executive Benjamin Morel said a report that a decision had already been taken to move all the matches off free-to-air television was “highly premature”.
With the current broadcasting deal expiring in 2021, the Six Nations is preparing to receive proposals from broadcasters hoping to acquire the next rights package.
The Rugby Paper said Sky Sports had become favourites to secure a deal worth £300 million and remove the Six Nations from terrestrial TV “until 2024 at the earliest” after the BBC and ITV were banned from making a joint bid.
Six Nations matches have been on terrestrial TV since England’s home games were shown exclusively on Sky from 1997 to 2002.
“We are in the process of seeking intentions to bid for various sets of media rights, but these are not due for some time,” Morel said. “All this is highly premature and speculative, as no proposals have been sent by any interested party yet.”
A senior source from the Six Nations said: “We are not ruling anything out at this stage and we will collectively review and make a decision in due course based on the nature of the offers received.”
This comes amid reports of CVC Capital Partners expanding its rugby union portfolio by acquiring a stake of 14 per cent of the Six Nations in a £300million deal.
That story, in the Financial Times last week, suggested that CVC, already a minority shareholder in the Premiership and the Pro14, would bundle together TV rights for competitions around the world into a single package for broadcasters.
Digital players, such as Amazon, which streamed its inaugural Premier League football matches earlier this season via its Prime service, are to be considered as well.
The Six Nations unions of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy had already begun talks over pooling commercial interests, a strategy dubbed “Project Light”, prior to the involvement of CVC. Morel has previously said that organisers highly valued the benefits of exposing the tournament to a bigger audience on free-to-air TV.
Bill Beaumont, the World Rugby chairman, reinforced this point yesterday by referring to the dizzying viewing figures recorded in Japan by last year’s World Cup.
“Game growth is about taking the sport to new markets and audiences,” Beaumont said on Twitter.
‘All this is highly premature and speculative, as no proposals have been sent yet’
“Rugby World Cup 2019 was a triumphant endorsement of the strategy, as these incredible Japan domestic audiences demonstrate.”
Beaumont’s tweet linked to a World Rugby infographic that demonstrated how Japan’s opening game of their host tournament, against Russia, garnered 26million viewers. That audience rose steadily, culminating in 54.8 million watching the Brave Blossoms’ 28-21 triumph over Scotland that secured their progress to the quarter-finals.
In 2015, the final match of the Six Nations schedule saw a peak viewership of 9.63million on BBC One for England’s 55-35 win over France at Twickenham. Last season, for Wales’ 21-13 victory over England at the Principality Stadium, the BBC’S audience hit 8.9million.
Just over eight months later, ITV’S exclusive coverage of the
World Cup final between England and South Africa peaked at 12.8 million, with a domestic audience share across Britain reaching 79 per cent at its highest point. That made it the most-viewed sporting event of 2019, beating England’s semi-final loss in the Fifa Women’s World Cup (11.8million) into second place.
Although the Rugby World Cup final is listed as a category A event in Ofcom’s Code on Sports and Other Listed and Designated Events, the Six Nations is under category B. This means that the tournament can be shown on paid television, provided sufficient secondary coverage – highlights, for
instance – is made available on a free-to-air basis.
At the Six Nations launch in January, Morel confirmed that the Six Nations had been holding “complex” conversations with CVC, but he also stressed that control for the unions and keeping the tournament “in the limelight” would be a vital consideration. He said: “Everyone wants to cherish this championship. Everyone has a great sense of responsibility for it. Keeping control of that is paramount.”