Tier Two clubs reject deal with Premier Sports

CHAMPIONSHIP clubs are at loggerheads with the RFU over a broadcast plan for the upcoming season.

Representatives for the 11 teams taking part in the 2020/21 campaign had a meeting on Friday where a plan was proposed.

A source told The Rugby Paper that a deal was put forward with Premier Sports, the subscription channel which airs PRO14, broadcasting one home game a week.

A centralised Championship streaming platform was also proposed for live coverage of all fixtures.

Any profits from these broadcasts would then be shared across the 11 teams after breakeven was achieved.

But it is understood that the plan was not agreed by the second-tier clubs due to the diversity of clubs’ supporter numbers, quality of the proposed product and the teams’ differing financial models.

This saw the RFU and Championship sides leave the meeting with “no resolution” – and representatives for the 11 clubs will meet tomorrow to discuss the proposal.

The second-tier sides are set to take part in a tengame season with five home and five away fixtures kicking off in three weeks’ time.

London Scottish are the only team to not sign up, describing the matches as “loss-making”.

Championship sides are facing huge Coronavirus testing costs and the pressures of 75 per cent funding cuts. But the absence of fans at matches has led to the “unanimous” drive by clubs to get livestreaming rights to matches this season.

Prior to the meeting, our source said that the clubs would “aim to reject” a plan which involved a broadcaster. They want to run their own livestreams, taking revenue from the virtual ticket sales.

This is a system already in place for pre-season friendlies this month as Ampthill, Bedford Blues and Coventry have all advertised livestreams.

TRP contacted the RFU but received no comment.