BBC and ITV secure 6 Nations rights

irishfeen

https://twitter.com/bbcsport/status/619144329932746752

"The BBC and ITV will share the rights to broadcast rugby union's Six Nations Championship for the next six years.

Wales, Scotland and France home matches will be on the BBC, while ITV will show England, Ireland and Italy home games"

BBC lose England home games! Brilliant to see the tournament remain FTA!

Harry Palmr

There needs to be more co-operation to keep or get back sports for FTA telly.

lertsnim

Excellent news. The longer this tournament is available to everyone the better.

irishfeen

Interesting to note that this deal has been brought in 2 years before the current one was due to end (2018).

6 years of FTA rugby is fantastic for everyone and will keep rugby growing! Almost for certain now Irish rights will remain FTA with or without government intervention!

irishfeen

Harry Palmr wrote: »

There needs to be more co-operation to keep or get back sports for FTA telly.

Yeah it would be great if the Irish FTA channels did the same - there is no point in competing with Sky/BT/Setanta individually anymore.

ftakeith

irishfeen wrote: »

Yeah it would be great if the Irish FTA channels did the same - there is no point in competing with Sky/BT/Setanta individually anymore.

totally agree

Buut it won't happen in ireland as its a small country or I hope I am wrong

iseegirls

When do RTE's deal for them expire?

irishfeen

iseegirls wrote: »

When do RTE's deal for them expire?

2018 I think... From what I remember the RTÉ/BBC deal ran alongside each other.

EDIT - it's actually 2017!

qweerty

BBC has now lost French Open tennis, The Open, the live rights to half of Formula One races (including Monaco, Italy, USA and the season opener), Olympics coverage and England Six Nations rugby. Will it be able to retain such a generous F1 deal when that expires and can it retain the Masters? Presumably they would sell anything else before giving up Wimbledon. I would guess that per hour costs will start to disproportionately increase, the more they lose.

Joeseph Balls

qweerty wrote: »

BBC has now lost French Open tennis, The Open, the live rights to half of Formula One races (including Monaco, Italy, USA and the season opener), Olympics coverage and England Six Nations rugby. Will it be able to retain such a generous F1 deal when that expires and can it retain the Masters? Presumably they would sell anything else before giving up Wimbledon. I would guess that per hour costs will start to disproportionately increase, the more they lose.

F1 will definitely go. AFAIK, BBC still had the rights till 2017, but sold to sky so they could afford to keep BBC 3. Sky will take it all once BBCs contract is up unfortunately.

Harry Palmr

qweerty wrote: »

BBC has now lost French Open tennis, The Open, the live rights to half of Formula One races (including Monaco, Italy, USA and the season opener), Olympics coverage and England Six Nations rugby. Will it be able to retain such a generous F1 deal when that expires and can it retain the Masters? Presumably they would sell anything else before giving up Wimbledon. I would guess that per hour costs will start to disproportionately increase, the more they lose.

They have kept most of the Six nations, they were likely to lose it all remember! Also the Olympics thing doesn't kick in until 2020 anything could happen by then. At least the French Open is still FTA.

titan18

I'd say the only thing that BBC will bid high for is Wimbledon and Match of the Day. They'll share with ITV for whatever else they can keep FTA. I'm not sure anything they've got left is a big enough draw, considering they lost the Olympics.

qweerty

Joeseph Balls wrote: »

F1 will definitely go. AFAIK, BBC still had the rights till 2017, but sold to sky so they could afford to keep BBC 3. Sky will take it all once BBCs contract is up unfortunately.

That'll be a big loss. Seems to be the modus operandi of Sky to convince sporting bodies to first allow dual-broadcasting of an event, "giving the best of both worlds", before then buying sole rights.

Harry Palmr wrote: »

They have kept most of the Six nations, they were likely to lose it all remember! Also the Olympics thing doesn't kick in until 2020 anything could happen by then. At least the French Open is still FTA.

I'm more looking at it from the perspective of BBC.

England games are obviously the prized-asset, though, and Ireland games are arguably more important than Scotland's, from BBC's perspective. If the Olympic rights are up for grabs, ITV, Sky and BT would all be in the mix, with the latter two being required to share some with a FTA channel.

titan18 wrote: »

I'd say the only thing that BBC will bid high for is Wimbledon and Match of the Day. They'll share with ITV for whatever else they can keep FTA. I'm not sure anything they've got left is a big enough draw, considering they lost the Olympics.

They still have the World Cup, jointly with ITV. But for how long?

titan18

qweerty wrote: »

They still have the World Cup, jointly with ITV. But for how long?

For the moment anyway, all World Cup matches have to be shown FTA, so that will stay and I'd imagine ITV and BBC are happy sharing.

qweerty

titan18 wrote: »

For the moment anyway, all World Cup matches have to be shown FTA, so that will stay and I'd imagine ITV and BBC are happy sharing.

Why do you think that? ITV are in a strong negotiating position in being the only FTA channel that could afford to share or buy the rights outright. If they pull out of a share, BBC couldn't afford to buy the full rights and no established broadcaster could take ITV's place. (Assuming unprecedented possibilities, like an online service entering a deal, or something, wouldn't happen.)

I think the next World Cup TV rights up for auction will be 2026, so obviously a lot can change.

irishfeen

Stolen from DS ..

Over the 5 year contract,

BBC will show:
ENGLAND: 9 times
WALES: 21 times
SCOTLAND: 21 times
IRELAND: 9 times
FRANCE: 21 times
ITALY: 9 times

ITV will show:
ENGLAND: 21 times
WALES: 9 times
SCOTLAND: 9 times
IRELAND: 21 times
FRANCE: 9 times
ITALY: 20 times

All Ireland/England matches will be on ITV.

irishfeen

I wonder will we much of a battle between RTÉ, TV3 & UTVI for Irish rights?

twinklerunner

According to this article in The Guardian a couple of days ago, it seems that it's more the case that Sky / BT didn't get involved in a bidding war than the authorities opting for free to air coverage

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jul/07/six-nations-bbc-itv-sky-terrestrial-television

irishfeen

Dan Roan BBC Sports Editor says sky did in fact bid and actually outbid BBC/ITV but the 6 Nations didn't bite...

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/33357440

"I understand Sky bid more than the combined BBC/ITV offer. But the Six Nations Committee did not feel it was sufficiently greater in value to compensate for the inevitable reduction in audience that going to Sky would have entailed. This despite the fact the Welsh, Irish and Scottish Rugby Unions were thought to be desperate to maximise the TV revenue on which they had become dependent."

Elmo

You'd wonder why Sky don't try for FTA rights, they could easily air all of those games on Pick. BT on BT Sports Showcase.

channelsurfer2

I think utvirl will have serious interest in the ITV matches. Rte may/could be left with second choice. Hard to tell re Libertytv3/UPC whether they would stump up 3-5million a year that the irish rights are rumoured to command

Elmo

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

I think utvirl will have serious interest in the ITV matches. Rte may/could be left with second choice. Hard to tell re Libertytv3/UPC whether they would stump up 3-5million a year that the irish rights are rumoured to command

There is no way that RTÉ would let go of the Irish matches in any deal with UTV Ireland.

Will be interesting to see if UTV proper provide an Ulster panel for the games or just grab the ITV panel.

Harry Palmr

irishfeen wrote: »

Stolen from DS ..

Over the 5 year contract,

BBC will show:
ENGLAND: 9 times
WALES: 21 times
SCOTLAND: 21 times
IRELAND: 9 times
FRANCE: 21 times
ITALY: 9 times

ITV will show:
ENGLAND: 21 times
WALES: 9 times
SCOTLAND: 9 times
IRELAND: 21 times
FRANCE: 9 times
ITALY: 20 times

All Ireland/England matches will be on ITV.

That is a strange split, and a poor one for the BBC. France are a draw but only 9 each of England and Ireland is hardly what they wanted.

channelsurfer2

Elmo wrote: »

There is no way that RTÉ would let go of the Irish matches in any deal with UTV Ireland.

Will be interesting to see if UTV proper provide an Ulster panel for the games or just grab the ITV panel.

they will if utvirl pay more money -however likely it may be. Rte are under pressure to not overspend but as you say the outcome may stay with rte.

irishfeen

I think there could be fierce competition for the Irish rights between RTÉ, UTV & TV3(UPC). If Ireland have a successful World Cup (reaching quarters of further) then there rugby again will be in the spotlight as Irish soccer fades away.

For RTÉ, TV3 and UTV these are the type of rights to get BIG viewership for selling advertisement spots.

jack presley

irishfeen wrote: »

Stolen from DS ..

Over the 5 year contract,

BBC will show:
ENGLAND: 9 times
WALES: 21 times
SCOTLAND: 21 times
IRELAND: 9 times
FRANCE: 21 times
ITALY: 9 times

ITV will show:
ENGLAND: 21 times
WALES: 9 times
SCOTLAND: 9 times
IRELAND: 21 times
FRANCE: 9 times
ITALY: 20 times

All Ireland/England matches will be on ITV.

So the number of times Brian Moore will be commentating on England matches has reduced significantly. That can only be a good thing.

icdg

I'd now expect RTE to win the Irish rights outright. TV3 will, if it bids, have to do before the UPC deal goes through. Their taking of the RWC rights was a surprise but in that case we were talking about a tournament that RTE hasn't broadcast exclusively since 2003 vs a tournament that RTE has been the exclusive Irish broadcaster of since TV coverage began. While I don't rule out a UTV bid, especially if they were given the opportunity to only bid for ITV's games, I think it more likely that Six Nations Rugby will stick with one broadcaster in this market.

iseegirls

I just can't see UTVi stumping up the money at the moment for the rights. TV3 will either bid back for the GAA rights or go for the 6 Nations. Depends how this World Cup rates for them.

irishfeen

iseegirls wrote: »

I just can't see UTVi stumping up the money at the moment for the rights. TV3 will either bid back for the GAA rights or go for the 6 Nations. Depends how this World Cup rates for them.

UTV have deep pockets, I would imagine they will compete now for the majority of sports rights into the future.

channelsurfer2

I would go for RTE to retain the rights but it all depends on UTVIRL and whether they have enough confidence in the Irish Market to want to take over and upset the RTE bid. Six nations rugby Ltd. will have no qualms about accepting a higher bid than RTE if it comes from another FTA broadcaster.

irishfeen

icdg wrote: »

I'd now expect RTE to win the Irish rights outright. TV3 will, if it bids, have to do before the UPC deal goes through. Their taking of the RWC rights was a surprise but in that case we were talking about a tournament that RTE hasn't broadcast exclusively since 2003 vs a tournament that RTE has been the exclusive Irish broadcaster of since TV coverage began. While I don't rule out a UTV bid, especially if they were given the opportunity to only bid for ITV's games, I think it more likely that Six Nations Rugby will stick with one broadcaster in this market.

I suppose it all depends on when the bidding takes place for Ireland.. Do we know if it's currently underway?

irishfeen

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

I would go for RTE to retain the rights but it all depends on UTVIRL and whether they have enough confidence in the Irish Market to want to take over and upset the RTE bid. Six nations rugby Ltd. will have no qualms about accepting a higher bid than RTE if it comes from another FTA broadcaster.

I tend to agree - highest FTA bidder in Ireland will probably win, simple as that.

I don't think there will be any major loyalty to RTÉ.

formerly scottish paddy

irishfeen wrote: »

UTV have deep pockets

Not any more, with the mounting losses at UTV I

formerly scottish paddy

Elmo wrote: »

Will be interesting to see if UTV proper provide an Ulster panel for the games or just grab the ITV panel.

Almost certainly they will just take the ITV coverage in its entirety, anything else would involve breaking into ITV's programme which ITV would not allow.

irishfeen

formerly scottish paddy wrote: »

Not any more, with the mounting losses at UTV I

Well they still have deep pockets... its whether they want to pour it into UTVI is the big question.

icdg

formerly scottish paddy wrote: »

Almost certainly they will just take the ITV coverage in its entirety, anything else would involve breaking into ITV's programme which ITV would not allow.

They did do their own separate coverage of Ireland games until the 2007 RWC, they are fully sovereign over their own programme schedule so long as they air ITN's news bulletins. The reason for not doing them now is that they've dismantled their sports department and they don't want to spend the money. ITV Wales still did separate coverage in 2011 for Wales games.