BBC presenter Gabby Logan has suggested that neutral fans might shun TNT Sports if the Six Nations moves behind a paywall and that rugby union is “potentially shooting itself in the foot again”.
The rights deal between the BBC and ITV for the Six Nations expires after this year’s championship, with TNT Sports linked with acquiring rights from next year. The broadcaster also shows the autumn internationals and Gallagher Premiership.
Speaking on The Sports Agents podcast (listen below) alongside co-host Mark Chapman and guest David Flatman, who works as a pundit for both ITV and TNT, Logan noted that millions come to watch the Six Nations on the BBC and ITV compared to “hundreds of thousands” watching the Premiership each week on TNT.
“We’re talking about people who don’t watch rugby all the time, enjoying these massive occasions, finding out more about the sport, enjoying the combat, enjoying the rivalry. That, if the Six Nations goes behind a paywall potentially, will be completely lost,” Logan said. “That neutral fan, that person that doesn’t really know rugby, coming along and enjoying the ride, they’re not necessarily going to go and bother to buy TNT or wherever the sport takes the Six Nations.”
Suggesting that the difference between the BBC and ITV’s new offer and TNT’s proposal could be around £10 million, Logan added that the difference was “not a lot in the scheme of things when you consider the sponsors and the brands who are not going to get the exposure that they would get on terrestrial television”, before adding; “Is this rugby union potentially shooting itself in the foot again?”
She continued: “The concern I would have is that those people who don’t necessarily know rugby aren’t necessarily going to seek it out. And then how do you grow the game? How do you get new eyeballs? How do you get new fans? How do you get new players?”
While conceding that there may come a time when “putting it all together in one place would be great for rugby fans” and that “everything is behind paywalls”, Logan added that the sport needed continued exposure on free-to-air television. “Right now rugby, I feel, needs to keep selling itself,” she said, having discussed the same topic with recent Sports Agents guests Maro Itoje and Courtney Lawes.
Under the current agreement the BBC holds the rights to Wales and Scotland home matches, while ITV broadcasts all those in England, Ireland, France and Italy.
Telegraph Sport was previously told by BBC insiders that staff among its Six Nations team are resigned to losing rights in the next TV deal, with concerns raised over the level of interest shown in rugby coverage by recently appointed director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski.
Jonathan Davies, the BBC pundit and former Wales fly-half, recently told Telegraph Sport in an interview that he thought Wales’s home game against England at the end of this year’s Six Nations could end up being his last.
