By Richie the Rhino (24/06/02)
June 24 2002

Will we get to see next season's 6 Nations on TV? Recent media reports indicate that the contract for TV coverage of the Six Nations is still up for grabs. Since Channel 4's decision to pull out, the BBC is now the only company in the picture.

It has been said that sometime ago a decision to preclude Sky was taken in the interests of ensuring the widest potential audience for the game by selling the rights to a terrestrial channel. This is a decision, which must surely be applauded by rugby fans.

However, in uncertain times for TV sports coverage, it is likely that the Six Nations TV coverage will not be sold at the price that the rugby authorities want.

The BBC has apparently offered £63M for a three year contract. This was originally turned down by the Six Nations committee, but is now under consideration again after Channel 4 pulled out of the bidding.

Channel 4 has pulled out after looking closely at the maths. Accordingly to figures in The Observer, based upon £1M cost per game, with expected audience figures, C4 would be up to £200K out of pocket on advertising revenue per game. This is based upon figures for an attractive fixture such as England v France. The figures look even worse for Celt v Celt wooden spoon games. Commercial TV companies are businesses that will not tolerate such losses, and so it’s down to the good old Beeb.

However the BBC has gone back to its original offer, and is said to be considering Nationwide League Soccer if it’s bid for the Six Nations fails. Whilst rugby audiences have grown in professional era, the fact that an England v France Six Nations decider could make a less attractive TV proposition than a Nationwide League soccer game is alarming. This must be of concern to the rugby authorities, which rely heavily on TV monies for the showcase Six Nations event.

The thought of the Six Nations not being televised is terrible, though hopefully it will not come to that, it is clear that we live in a volatile time as far as sports TV coverage goes.

Let's hope that the notoriously bad management of our game gets it act together, and gets the deal sorted out as soon as possible. What fans do not want to see is a repeat of the recent "England v Argentina - will it or won't it be televised" saga, which we had recently.