End of Days for Free to Air Six Nations?

The Guardian newspaper in England is reporting that a potential investment in the Six Nations by Private Equity Firm CVC could see games going behind a paywall.

The report indicates this is being resisted by the English, Scottish and Welsh Unions who are concerned about the subsequent drop in terms of profile and viewers.

The TV deal that sees games split between BBC and ITV in Britain and on Virgin Media in Ireland has this year and next year to run before being re-tendered, a process that is expected to begin in earnest at the conclusion of this year’s Championship.

CVC has already built up a strong stake in the Guinness PRO14 and the Gallaghers English Premiership both of which are primarily broadcast on Pay Per View TV where the scale of return and therefore the rights fee that broadcasters will pay makes a commercial return on investment much more feasible.

An investment in the region of €350 million for a fifteen per cent stake in the Six Nations is reported to be on the table but confirmation is only forthcoming that some discussions have taken place but that they are complex.

In 2017 the Irish Government considered adding Ireland’s Six Nations games to the list of ‘Designated’ events that have to be available on free to air television.

While that move was made for the All Ireland Ladies Football and camogie All Ireland Finals it was decided that the Six Nations would remain only as available free in deferred coverage.

The same applies in Britain where resistance to placing the games on the ‘A’ list of being available was lobbied against as being of damaging commercial impact to the sport.

The Heineken Champions’ Cup had remained entirely behind a paywall for nearly twenty years with little impact on its popularity in Ireland but rows and rows of empty seats at games seen elsewhere prompted the partial return to free to air this season.

Guinness entered into a six-year partnership to become the title sponsor of the Six Nations last year and it is likely that it would have some influence over the tournament retaining its place on the free to air sporting calendar, attracting audiences of up to nine million for games and dominating other sports media coverage as a result.

Rugby does not have the prominent place in sporting culture elsewhere than it does here and the importance of visibility looks to be winning the battle at present.

If however, there was a compromise where one game in each round was put behind a paywall and perhaps shown as deferred coverage later in the day, that may be enough to trigger a massive investment of cash that the sport would then say was important in terms of developing the playing population.

There is no right or wrong answer in terms of what is best for the sport, best for the fans or in what will transpire.

If you are sitting down again this weekend though, for a marathon session involving watching all three games and paying for it only through your TV license and watching advertising, you might just savour it.

It might not last forever.