One of the highlights of the Six Nations it the annual montages at the beginning and end of the championships.
Those montages had been under threat after the Six Nations chief revealed that the television rights of the tournament would be open to bidding from pay-TV services. Yesterday brought the news that the BBC and ITV had joined forces in the UK over the television rights, but it was unclear how this affected the situation in Ireland.
According to the Irish Times, Sky had been considering acquiring the rights of the tournament in Ireland. However, since it appears unlikely that they will win the bidding in the UK, they will bow out of the contest - leaving RTE to pick up the television rights for the Ireland.
The Irish television market makes up about three percent of the revenue that the Six Nations makes over these deals, but the Six Nations are concerned about the support amongst Irish politicians about designating the tournament free-to-air given how that may impact the UK television deal for Sky and BT, via the Irish Times:
The reality is you get really hurt badly by the [FTA] broadcasters if they know that there’s no real market or competition for them.
The reality is the Irish market puts in less than three million sterling and receives significantly more than ten million sterling back. If the Irish scenario hurts the broadcasting deal that can be done in the UK because of problems with Sky or BT or whoever it may be, that could have a very serious impact on the actual revenues.
The Six Nations are currently finalising an agreement for the British broadcast rights, before moving to the Irish market. The Irish market is likely to be settled swiftly once they adjudicate between the offers in the UK between Sky and BBC/ITV.
