6N to stay on terrestrial TV

The Six Nations is poised to remain on terrestrial television after the BBC and ITV teamed up to keep it out of the clutches of Sky Sports in a £50  million swoop, it was reported on Tuesday night.

According to the Guardian, the BBC approached ITV with an offer to share coverage upon being outbid by Sky for the rights to international rugby’s biggest annual tournament from 2018.

An announcement that the two terrestrial broadcasters would split the 15 Six Nations matches between them was said to be imminent, something that would be welcomed by armchair fans who have seen a succession of major sporting events lured to pay-TV in recent years.

The Six Nations was in serious danger of following suit after tournament organisers openly courted bids from the likes of Sky and BT to drive up the price. As it was, only Sky made an offer, which was said to have fallen short of the amount needed for the Six Nations board to seriously consider defecting from terrestrial television.

That followed record-breaking ratings for the most dramatic final day in the Championship’s history, which Paul O’Connell’s Ireland won after Chris Robshaw narrowly failed to inspire England to an historic triumph. BT were prepared to help prop up any BBC bid that fell short in exchange for some matches, with the two companies having forged close links when it comes to rights.

Turning to ITV would therefore represent something of a surprise move by the corporation.

The BBC faces an uncertain future after learning the Government was planning to make it foot the £650m bill for supplying over-75s with a free television licence and last week was beaten to the rights for the Olympic Games by the owner of Eurosport.

Fortunately, parent company Discovery plans to sub-let them back to the corporation, which recently lost the Open to Sky Sports, having surrendered half of the Masters and Formula One and its entire horse racing portfolio in recent years.

ITV, which appeared to have money to spend after losing the Champions League to BT Sport, was linked with a bid for the entire Six Nations.

But it was said last night to be interested only in sharing the rights, which would sit alongside its exclusive coverage of the Rugby World Cup.

Sin é wrote:The Six Nations Company is based in Ireland to avail of Sporting Tax Exemption, so payment would be in Euros.

Look on the bright side though - the Six Nations Company are better off by at least 12.5% (and in most cases 18%+ by being tax resident in Ireland.

doctor_grey wrote:

Sin é wrote:The Six Nations Company is based in Ireland to avail of Sporting Tax Exemption, so payment would be in Euros.

Look on the bright side though - the Six Nations Company are better off by at least 12.5% (and in most cases 18%+ by being tax resident in Ireland.

Interesting.  And makes sense.  

Do you think the overall profitability of the Six Nations could be impacted if the Euro falls a bit more due to the Greece debacle?  This is one of those strange aspects of our set-up which could only exist in the Byzantine world of Rugby and the Six Nations:  4 countries, 6 jurisdictions, 2 currencies.  Only us........