Six Nations hits £20m jackpot of prize cash

THE Six Nations will be playing for record sums in prize money of around £20m when the tournament kicks off on Saturday week.

A Grand Slam will be worth as much as £6.5m to the winner, virtually £1m more than Wales earned for achieving the most recent clean sweep three years ago.

The raising of the jackpot to an all-time high is based on the soaring value of the tournament’s enhanced television deal.

ITV and BBC won the rights to live coverage for the next four years as reward for raising their joint bid by some 25 per cent. Their action followed a public outcry after The Rugby Paper revealed that the Six Nations’ bidding process prohibited the terrestrial channels from combining forces, thereby clearing the way for Sky to put the event behind a paywall.

The old six-year agreement which expired at the end of last year’s Championship was worth £90m-a-year. The new one is understood to start at circa £115m-a-year, some way short of the £150m-a-year the organisers wanted before Covid changed everything.

“The fans’ anger at the prospect of the event vanishing from free-to-air encouraged ITV and BBC to fight to keep what they had,’’ a senior source told The Rugby Paper. “In the circumstances it’s a good deal all round, more money and a guaranteed live audience running into millions. What’s not to like?”

Sponsorship contracts adding up to another £10m are included in the overall deal, 15 per cent of which is set aside for prize money as determined by final placings.

The difference between finishing second and fourth, for example, is not far short of £2m.

With fans back for the first time since the pandemic began hitting it for six in March 2020, organisers are planning to cater for a collective attendance of one million over the 15 matches, an average in the vicinity of 70,000.

ITV will show all England and Ireland home matches, as well as those hosted by France and Italy. BBC will show all Scotland and Wales home fixtures plus the womens’ Six Nations and the U20 tournament.

The arrangement guarantees BBC one live match for each of the five rounds starting with Scotland-England at Murrayfield on February 5 and finishing

with Wales-Italy at Cardiff on March 19.

ITV will kick off with the opening match, Ireland-Wales in Dublin on Saturday week (Feb 5). They will finish six weeks later with live coverage of two potential deciders,

Ireland-Scotland followed by France-England. As an insider said: ‘’There’s no doubt ITV is the senior partner.’’