Six Nations insider fears sponsor backlash over £300m paywall deal
Six Nations chiefs have been warned they could face a backlash from sponsors if they take the Championship away from terrestrial television and behind a paywall under a new £300m deal with Sky.
Guinness have a six-year deal worth an estimated £50m to the Six Nations which runs until 2024 and exposure on terrestrial television – the BBC and ITV currently share rights – would have been a major selling point.
Although a switch to a paywall channel would theoretically allow for more sponsors’ mentions, the audience will be much smaller compared to the 12.8m who tuned into the Rugby World Cup final between England and South Africa on terrestrial television last year.
Following the departure of RBS, Guinness, it is understood, are paying around £6m for the first year – a figure which will grow to double that by 2024.
Faced with this scenario, a Six Nations insider told RugbyPass that a new television deal could be structured similarly to Premier League football with various packages of matches sold to the highest bidder. He explained: “If, for example, Sky put forward the biggest bid then their package could revolve around first choice of match and kick-off time for each round of the Championship which would almost certainly be the one involving England. There would, under that system, be the ability to offer a limited package to a terrestrial channel. That would head off some of the criticism from those who do not want to pay to watch Six Nations games on TV.”
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There has been, as expected, considerable anger on social media at the possibility of the Six Nations being put behind a paywall if a deal involving Sky, BT or Amazon is struck and Nigel Currie, industry expert and former joint chairman of the European Sponsorship Association, believes sponsors with existing deals will be closely watching developments. Besides Guinness as the headline sponsor, the Six Nations has deals with Amazon Web Services and Tissot.
Currie explained: “If Guinness have a good sponsorship deal, which I suspect they have given there were not that many companies bidding to take over the Six Nations, they would have a case to revisit the details of the deal.
Reports in France claim another big name is headed for the exit at Allianz Park.https://t.co/Z3oUJ0lZzr
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 2, 2020
“While Sky audiences are growing, they are no where near the biggest terrestrial audiences. The Guinness deal would have been done on the basis it was on terrestrial channels. The Six Nations may have had some protection in the agreement but you would expect the sponsorship money to be dependent on the television deal.”
“Guinness are a big, canny operator and this is a big sponsorship deal and it would have been watertight. If goes onto Sky they may be able to offer sponsors more in terms of break bumpers and exposure because it’s a commercial channel. However, terrestrial television picks up millions of viewers who may like a bit of rugby but they would not be prepared to pay for the privilege.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Starts to be overdone and oversold this systematic SA narrative…which nevertheless has the merit in this case to recognise blatant refereeing mistakes in their favor
2 Go to commentsNice article. Shades of Steinbeck. They can win the final if they take the game seriously; but only if they take it seriously.
2 Go to commentsWhat a sad way to end a glittering career. Somebody should tell him to delete his social media accounts and face the consequences of what he's done. Then he should slip away quietly into obscurity. This isn't likely to happen, something tells me he'll be back in The Sun / Daily Mail sooner rather than later.
3 Go to commentsguys its fine! he understands why he did what he did and has taken accountability for it; why should he have to be accountable to a court? after all he did was abuse people in person - its not as if he was engaging in _online_ abuse!
3 Go to commentsChiefs flanker Kaylum Boshier yellow-carded for collapsing the scrum as it rolled towards the line. It was a maul….
1 Go to commentsyou know, i’m a leinster fan so I want Northampton to lose and it is gonna be tuff with Cortney lawes, Alex michell and the other guys🏉 lets go leinster🏉
1 Go to commentsWelcome to the Pro ranks. Those hard teams of old do hit the sole better though. its a dog fight at the top.
6 Go to commentsCan someone fill me in please, I've read a number of Ben Smith articles now and it seems he's got something again South Africa? Surely, this game was over and done with 7 months ago. Can't we have something a bit more interesting and relevant, or is this the calibre of journalist on this site?
228 Go to commentsNot sure what the Welsh are moaning about. They’ve had far more players off England, than England have had off Wales. Guys like Josh Hathaway and Kane James will play for Wales in the end. And they’ll be fsr better players for having played in the Gallagher Premiership, than they ever would have been had they stayed mired in the shambles that is Welsh rugby.
3 Go to commentsThis is all being blown totally out of proportion. First of all, since half the Irish team isn’t Irish - it’s very likely that none of the Irish players said that at all and, thus, we’re not being arrogant. Second, since half the Irish team is Kiwi - it’s very likely the Kiwi players were predicting a NZ SA World Cup final. Which they got spot on. Good on them!
163 Go to commentsAha. An Irishman with logic! Follow the flow: - Ireland peaks with a >80% win record between 2020 and 2023. And then… - crashes out of another QF at the WC; - Beat a poor French Team; - Beat 6N wooden spoonists Italy; - Play shite against eventual wooden spoonists Wales; - Lose against the most boring, “the worst English team ever” , a team widely regarded as unable to attack; - scrape through against Scotland. This article, No - Trimble, is on the money! Except for one glaring statement: _The Springboks have a few aces in the hole in this debate being the reigning world champions and official world number ones_ There is no debate, boys and girls. There it is. In black and white. “Reigning World Champions and OFFICIAL world number ones”. Come July, the overrated Andy Farrell and this overhyped team are going to enter into a world of hurt.
86 Go to commentsI’d like to know what homoerotic events Daniel enjoyed at 8th man. I clearly missed out!
19 Go to commentsThis article is missing some detail, like some actual context or info about what led to him abusing the ref.
2 Go to comments*They used to say that football is a gentleman sport watched by hooligans and rugby is a hooligan sport watched by gentlemen. How times have changed.*
3 Go to commentsexcept ot wasnt late wasnt late at all so dont know why you all saying its late he commits early and its your fault fir not paying attention
30 Go to commentsNot sure the Bulls need another average utility back in their ranks. Chamberlain has been ok for the Sharks but is by no means an X-Factor player. Bulls bought several utility backs which they barely use. A typical example would be Henry Immelman who plays mostly Fullback. The Bulls however have rarely played him this year and he has played wing or centre. Bulls want to build depth but seems like they have too many surplus players
1 Go to commentsABs lost against a side playing without a hooker - The guy playing, had one shoulder. Line outs were a gimme for the ABs, and the last 8 minutes 14 played 14 against a team that had been smashed 3 weeks in a row… Yet with all that possession, with all that territory, with all the advantages they actually had, especially in the last 8 minutes, they couldn’t buy a point. Those last 8 minutes determined if they outplayed the Boks or not. History will show that the Boks completely outplayed the ABs, especially in those last 8 minutes, the business end of any rugby match
228 Go to commentsWould’ve, could’ve, should’ve, didn’t.
228 Go to commentsKok will become a fan favourite
1 Go to commentsI am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to comments