It looks like the Six Nations will be staying on free-to-air television. With the current television rights contract with RTE and BBC ending in 2017; the Six Nations committee caused a stir by announcing that the bidding would be open to pay-TV stations for the first time.
With the final round of bidding for the next competition ending last week, and an announcement from the Six Nations over what television station will host the tournament.
It's rumoured that Sky made the biggest offer; but with the BBC's offer not too substantially lower - the Guardian has revealed that the BBC have recruited ITV's help to ensure that a combined free-to-air offer is worth more to the Six Nations than Sky's.
It's now expected that Sky will lose out, unless they come back with an improved late bid. That does seem to be the reason for the delay of the announcement from the Six Nations, but Sky and BT - who did not bid for the tournament - are reluctant to get drawn into a bidding war after spending so much into football rights.
It does appear to be the best of both worlds - with the tournament remaining free-to-air to maximise it's audience, while the nations involved will get the revenue needed, that remains as more than if the government were to deem the tournament as a mandatory free-to-air tournament.
As it stands, it's unclear how this will affect the TV rights in Ireland, but it's not a huge leap to think this would be a positive indication that the tournament will remain on free-to-air television in this country with (most likely) RTÉ likely to continue their association with the competition.
Picture credit: Ramsey Cardy / SPORTSFILE
