Outgoing BBC Sport director Barbara Slater has admitted that the BBC may not be able to continue to afford the Six Nations broadcast rights.
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The BBC currently shares the rights with ITV in a deal that lasts until 2025 and includes the men’s, women’s, and under-20s’ competitions. The Six Nations is not part of the listed events, despite traditionally being shown free-to-air.
Speaking to the culture, media, and sport select committee, Slater, who is set to retire after four decades at the BBC, said: “Sports rights in the UK have more than doubled in the past decade. BBC’s income in real terms has gone down 30%. It is incredibly difficult for the BBC to maintain, across a range of sports, the expectations of those governing bodies.”
She added on the Six Nations specifically, “With the Six Nations, like anything, we will have to assess the affordability at the time. Because it is very difficult for the BBC, on that trajectory of income, to continue to afford everything that we have.
“The truth is we’re probably not going to be the highest bidder, and it will come down to individual governing bodies as to how they balance that reach and revenue.”
RUCK sources suggest that Prime Video would be primed to increase their rugby offering once the current deal comes to an end. This coverage would likely be shared with ITV Sport.
Prime Video has been the UK broadcast partner of the annual Autumn Nations Series since 2021, which is organised by Six Nations Rugby.
Six Nations insiders are also expecting a bid from Sky Sports.
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Quiz! Can you name the 20 most-capped men’s England players?
Several of these individuals have participated, or are presently participating, in the contemporary era of rugby.
Can you identify how many of the top 20 most-capped England rugby players you can name?
We’ve supplied the total number of caps and their respective playing positions for each player. Your task is simply to complete their surnames.
You have a 5-minute window to attempt to guess all 20 players.
“Beyond a joke” – Nigel Owens calls for major changes to rugby
Popular former referee Nigel Owens has called for major changes to way games are officiated following what was a divisive Rugby World Cup.
The Welshman, who was writing in his column for Wales Online, believes there are a number of areas that need addressing after taking time to think about what went down in France.
Dump the bunker:
Owens wrote: “During the Rugby World Cup, I made no secret of my thoughts on the new TMO bunker. While it certainly showed how it can help to speed up games, it hardly reduced controversies or improved decision-making during the tournament and, in my opinion, ended up being used too much when the decisions should have been made by the on-field referees.
“At the moment, it feels like the TMO is refereeing matches and that is not a road that rugby should be going down. While technology has its place in the game, how it is used currently needs to change.”
Scrap the drop-out:
Owens wrote: “It was hoped that they would improve player safety by reducing the number of pick-and-gos and encourage teams to spread the ball along the back line rather than bulldoze their way over to score.
But if you look at games now, teams are still picking and going and they’re still bulldozing their way over the line. If anything, it rewards negative play as the defender can just chuck themselves under the ball and hold it up.”