- The broadcast rights landscape at the top levels of rugby is now an unwieldy mess
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It makes for a good quiz question: name the TV channels where you can watch every professional rugby league match.
Only the most dedicated fans get the full score. Once everyone is seated comfortably, take a deep breath, here goes…
The Six Nations: BBC and ITV (for now). The World Cup: ITV (again, for now). The Premier League: TNT Sports. Champions Cup: Premier Sport. Next year’s Lions tour of Australia: Sky Sports. Autumn Nations Series: TNT Sports. The Rugby Championship: Sky Sports. United Rugby Championship (URC): Premier Sports. French Top 14: Premier Sports.
As if that wasn’t enough, Japan vs England ended up on RugbyPass TV – owned by governing body World Rugby – in June.
And before TNT acquired the rights from them, Amazon Prime showed the November internationals, which required a new subscription.
The broadcast rights landscape is an unwieldy mess. Good luck keeping up with all those monthly payments (it would cost you over £1,000 a year).
The broadcast rights landscape in rugby is an unwieldy mess. Japan vs England ended up on RugbyPass TV, owned by governing body World Rugby, in June
The arrival of Premier Sports in the Champions Cup has made it clear that it is now terribly expensive to follow rugby across the board. Many die-hard devotees have stopped trying
Premier Sports is smaller than TNT and Sky Sports and therefore relies on a strong increase in registrations
It has become terribly expensive to follow rugby across the board, as die-hard enthusiasts are keen to do. Many simply stopped trying.
Premier Sports’ entry into the Champions Cup has further exposed this critical issue, after the Irish subscription service struck when TNT’s offer to retain the rights was rejected by organizers European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR).
This will suit fans in Wales, Scotland and Ireland who had already subscribed to watch the URC, but not those in England.
Apart from a few issues where coverage of a live match last weekend suddenly switched to another previous match or even to another sport (soccer), Premier Sports’ overall product was fine. They were able to deploy a family tree of presenters and experts, with the usual freelance crossover between broadcasters.
The problem is fragmentation – and lost visibility. Premier Sports is much smaller than TNT and Sky Sports and is therefore relying on a surge in sign-ups at a time of perceived subscriber fatigue as viewers grow tired of having to constantly change.
Rugby has to be seen, but there is no terrestrial TV element to this Champions Cup deal. When the deal with Premier Sports was belatedly announced in August, EPCR CEO Jacques Raynaud said: “We felt it was more reasonable to prioritize the value of exclusivity versus free-to-air exposure at this time.”
Frankly, EPCR seems to have brought in such a modest amount of revenue – reports suggest they accepted half of the £14 million offered by TNT – that they might as well have given the rights to terrestrial channels for free, to to increase awareness.
Every year there is a tangible difference when the Six Nations takes place and it has the feel of a truly national event with greater reach, greater interest, grandeur and profound significance.
Sadly, rugby isn’t the only one being swept away by the power of Premier League football. It eats up budgets and sponsorship, brutally marginalizing other sports.
If the Six Nations – rugby’s annual showcase, which it currently takes for granted – ends up on pay TV, the sport will be in big trouble.