As is often the case with sporting triumph, Ireland’s victory in the RBS 6 Nations has developed a political angle as the possibility of a TV switch to pay-per-view loom on the horizon.
Saturday’s dramatic conclusion to the Championship saw a peak viewing audience of 891,030 tune into the closing minutes of England against France as Ireland’s title hopes swung one way then the other.
This was even higher than the peak figure for the Ireland Scotland game two hours earlier which topped out at 852,330.
With a renewal of TV contracts on the horizon though, and with Rugby having emerged as a key battleground between Sky Sports and BT Sport in the pay-per-view market, the likelihood of a repeat of those numbers in years to come, and of the ‘national experience’ that goes with such a collective shared viewing of the games is under threat.
BT Sport and Sky Sports bid high for the shared rights to the European Rugby Champions’ Cup meaning that there will be no terrestrial TV coverage of the Leinster Vs Bath quarter final on April 4th.
The traditional rugby demographic plays well for the broadcasters and the success of Saturday, allied to the pending hype and excitement of a northern hemisphere Rugby World Cup in October will certainly have calculators being worked overtime to see what justifiable price might be paid.
Whatever that number comes out as it is unlikely that public service broadcasters including RTÉ and the BBC will be able to match it.
The IRFU and the other governing bodies across the 6 Nations are the same who decided to accept massive broadcast income at the expense of massive TV audiences last year and the indications are that a similar temptation would be too much to turn down for what is the jewel in the crown of their sport on this side of the world.
The political dimension comes from pressure now being brought to bear to include the 6 Nations as part of a protected list of sporting events that the Government insists must be made available to a wide audience through free to air broadcast.
There is a similar list in the UK where similar pressures will be applied but the sports themselves would resist on the basis that it restricts their commercial right to obtain maximum market value around the biggest events.
In Britain the list includes the Olympics and Paralympics, the FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championships and FA Cup final in football, the Grand National, the Derby, Wimbledon singles finals, the Rugby League Challenge Cup final and the Rugby World Cup final.
Wherever the protection / restriction has not applied market forces have tended to push sport behind the pay wall, as has happened with Cricket, in the Ryder Cup and the Open in golf and many more.
In Ireland the list, managed by the Department of Communications is a little broader and includes:
- The Summer Olympics
The All-Ireland Senior Inter-County Football & Hurling Finals
Ireland’s home and away qualifying games in the European Football Championship & the FIFA World Cup Tournaments
Ireland’s games in the European Football Championship Finals Tournament and the FIFA World Cup Finals Tournament
The opening games, the semi-finals and final of the European Football Championship Finals and the FIFA World Cup Finals Tournament
Ireland’s games in the Rugby World Cup Finals Tournament
The Irish Grand National and the Irish Derby
The Nations Cup at the Dublin Horse Show
It also provides for deferred coverage of the RBS 6 Nations.
A public consultation of this list was undertaken in 2014 but no resulting changes have yet been published. The existing list has been in place since 2003.
