There has been talk this week of TNT Sports taking an interest in bringing live coverage of the Guinness Six Nations behind a paywall as early as 2026.
The current deals in place with RTÉ and Virgin media in Ireland, and with ITV and BBC in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland expire at the end of this season so naturally the debate heats up at this point in the cycle.
Back in the late 1990’s Sky Sports held exclusive rights to England home matches across Britain and the Autumn Series Internationals have similarly been broadcast behind a paywall in Britain on first Amazon and then last season on TNT Sports.
In Ireland the games have always been broadcast free to air and are part of the Government listed sporting events, albeit only for deferred coverage at the request of the IRFU and its Six Nations partners.
The Rugby World Cup is live and free to air across both jurisdictions just as it’s football counterpart is. Drawing the comparison further the Six Nations is equivalent to the Euro’s though played every year. Could it be countenanced or considered that this quadrennial event was to be taken off Free to Air? Highly unlikely though it should be recognised that Ireland and Britain are exceptions.
The only Group stage matches broadcast free in Portugal during a World Cup for example are those involving the home team and Brazil. We should never get complacent over the watching freedoms we have.
The value of the Six Nations deal is estimated to be worth around €110 million with ITV and the BBC paying the bulk of that.
Moving to a Pay TV model might attract a premium of 10 or maybe 20 per cent on that, which would be welcomed by the sport but at what cost?
The English Premier League has thrived behind the paywall but that has such heft and such consistency that it has be seen as an exceptional property.
The Six Nations here would regularly take up four or five of the most watched TV programmes of the year so there is value for the broadcasters but even more so for the IRFU in keeping the games open as part of a national sporting conversation.
The numbers who have played Rugby or are embedded in the sport through membership of a club are small compared to Gaelic Games and Football and the importance of the spotlight being shone into every home at this time of the year is vital for it holding its place as one of the Big Three sports in Ireland.
The relatively small gain that Ireland would get would not compensate for the dilution of the other commercial rights like sponsorship and trickle down interest in the Provincial sides and the club game.
The Six Nations decides on the coverage as a group and ireland would be a smaller voice at that table than others but also a smaller carve out if others wanted to go down a Pay TV route,
The bigger problem would be the rights in Northern Ireland without BBC NI and UTV being part of a deal. That would be one of the challenges which TNT insiders have said would make a bid more complicated.
We have been here before with these rumours and there is also a belief that they may be useful in bumping up the price of rights for the free to air broadcasters.
Never say never but we would be confident that a roll over of the broadcast rights for another five year period is a more likely outcome once the dust settles on the 2025 tournament, and maybe even before that.
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