Anyone for trinitrotoluene?
Rugby’s Six Nations paywall dilemma and shrinkage at the Beeb
On the eve of this year’s men’s Six Nations bursts forth news that TNT Sports is preparing a bid for broadcast rights to the tournament from 2026. Cue mild hysteria at the possibility of rugby’s premier annual competition ‘disappearing’ behind a TV paywall. An accelerant to the decline in mass interest in the sport or vital financial lifeline for Europe’s leading unions? Both perhaps.
England’s cricket team first appeared on Sky way back in 1990. The upstart broadcaster’s founder, Rupert Murdoch, later told shareholders in its parent News Corporation that live sport was the “battering ram” to get pay TV entry into people’s homes. In the 35 years since, TV money has enriched the world’s leading cricketers but, in England at least, domestic cricket has struggled. Most counties are strapped for cash, the number of schools providing cricket is dwindling and grassroots participation is stagnant.
It is impossible to prove cause and effect between cricket taking the pay TV dollar and the challenged state of the game. England’s team still fills grounds at punchy ticket prices, so there can be no doubting the existence of a core, affluent fanbase. But critics cite anecdotal evidence of a lack of awareness of the sport, particularly among those too young to have ever seen it on free TV, let alone had the opportunity to play cricket at school. How many of the England team - Ben Stokes aside - would walk unnoticed down the High Streets of the land?
The Hundred is in part an attempt to connect with the ‘lost’ generations. 15 of the 68 matches in the tournament are screened simultaneously by the BBC and Sky. There seems little prospect that free-to-air cricket will expand, however, so any kids hooked by the bundle of matches on the Beeb this August will have to rely on highlights packages and online clips to build a lifelong love of the game. Unless their home has Sky, of course. Or they can persuade their family to venture to a county ground.
One cricket blogger disillusioned by The Hundred pointed out to his followers this week that the CEO of Six Nations Rugby is one Tom Harrison, the former chief executive of the ECB and generally considered as the architect of English cricket’s controversial newcomer. If Harrison thought a bit of free-to-air and a lot of paywall was good for cricket, then why not for international rugby too?
The financial travails of rugby’s unions are well known, although not necessarily well understood. The glitz of international competition merely masks the challenges besetting rugby, from its professional club sides downwards. Just as England’s cricket team is the breadwinner that feeds the whole domestic game, so filling national stadia for big matches is apparently the principal lifeline for the broader sport.
“We are definitely having a look at the Six Nations. How that plays out we don’t know, how it fits into the ecosystem.” Scott Young on behalf of TNT, reported in The Times
If TNT Sports, or any other subscription broadcaster, is prepared to top bids from incumbents BBC and ITV for Six Nations rights, then it should be no surprise if the six nations’ heads are turned. Remember that there is a private equity player in the mix now too.
PE giant CVC has pumped money into rugby properties around the globe in recent years, with little sense as yet of how it might make a return acceptable to its end investors. This spending spree includes the £365 million purchase of a 1/7th stake in the men’s and women’s Six Nations plus the Autumn Internationals, announced back in 2021.
The private equity industry typically works on a three- to seven-year investment cycle. Although only one voice of seven around the Six Nations table, expect CVC to look favourably on any TV deal that promises a jump in near-term revenues - accompanied by a hard-nosed reminder to its partners that it needs to evidence a return on its outlay.
Those rugby types wringing their hands at the prospect of a winning TNT bid are bemoaning the fact that the Six Nations is not on the so-called ‘crown jewels’ list of sporting events that must be shown live free-to-air. It is only on the B list that requires highlights to be screened on terrestrial TV.
The crown jewels A list is quirky. For example, it contains rugby league’s Challenge Cup final and the Olympics, but no golf Open Championships or Commonwealth Games. The purpose of the list is to ensure that traditional ‘stop the nation’ events continue to have the capacity to do just that. In the current world of multiple broadcast platforms and formats, though, the concept appears increasingly anachronistic. While the contents of the list are very occasionally reviewed, it is as likely to be scrapped entirely as see the Six Nations promoted to the A list in order to prevent it moving behind a paywall.
The current crown jewels A list: FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euros (men’s and women’s), FA Cup Final, Scottish Cup Final (only in Scotland), the Derby, the Grand National, rugby league Challenge Cup Final, rugby union World Cup Final, men’s and women’s singles finals at Wimbledon, the Olympics and Paralympics (although neither entirely free-to-air live). Details here
Rugby faces similar challenges to cricket, from school sport upwards. We are no longer in 1990 though, and the damage arguably wrought to public awareness of cricket by going down the Sky route is unlikely to be replicated on any comparable scale by a change to rugby’s broadcast model. Subscription TV is much more widely accepted today, free highlights and clips can almost instantly fill the void for anyone keen to be part of a national conversation, and frankly how many events are there - not just in rugby but across all sport - that do threaten to stop the nation? (Unless The Traitors counts as sport).
We are told that the process to sell the future Six Nations broadcast rights will begin after this year’s tournament. Most likely outcome? A combination of ITV and TNT, so generating a much-needed boost in revenues for the six unions and a valuation uplift for CVC’s portfolio.
Beeb on the B list
The saccharine nature of much of the BBC’s sports punditry may sometimes jar, but it’s fair to say the state broadcaster does big sport well. It is a costly exercise though and, as rights fees have spiralled, so the Beeb’s portfolio of major events has shrunk. The graphic below from The Telegraph this week tells the story. Spool forward a decade and the crown jewels list may well have been scrapped and all the boxes in the chart turned red. Question then is whether the BBC will be willing to continue to grow its roster of secondary and tertiary sports and events. I hope so, as that would truly fulfil its public service mandate.
Brown sauce for me
A distinguished sports broadcaster, now retired, gets in touch to bemoan his £120 monthly bill for Sky TV. Want to economise? Sport, drama/cinema or neither? Reminds me of Danny Baker’s Sausage Sandwich Game on 5Live. Red sauce, brown sauce or no sauce at all? In my corespondent’s case, MOTD and live amateur sport.
The curse of Sport inc.
A day after last week’s Sport inc. highlighting athlete overload, Novak Djokovic joined the list of Australian Open mid-match retirees. Perhaps there’s a market to be exploited in selling star withdrawal insurance to ticket buyers. Might stifle some of the beered-up booing.
“See me ride out of the sunset on your color TV screen”
TNT? TV? Couldn’t resist…
Good article Ed. Good for thought