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How Six Nations could go from best championship yet to behind a paywall

Even as the Six Nations has proved its worth yet again as a sporting explosion in the soft middle of the winter season, there are doubts over its future direction. The broadcast deal with BBC and ITV, who show the whole thing live and free-to-air, is up after 2025, and the smart money within the industry is on TNT Sports bringing a subscription-channel element from 2026, maybe in conjunction with some matches remaining on ITV.

The 2024 edition was given lift-off by Ireland’s remarkable thrashing of France on the opening weekend, and then England turned up at Twickenham to swat away the concern that an Irish procession to the Grand Slam was making the tournament dull for the rest. Italy, too, have delivered on the promise shown by their Under-20s and URC team Benetton in recent times. So while one BBC pundit had called the championship “dreary” in the run-up to England beating Ireland, I’d disagree – in the wake of the 2023 World Cup, the Six Nations’ mix of age-old tribalism, tight matches and new faces has been a thrill as the dark evenings return to light.

The rights to football’s FA Cup recently went to TNT, primarily, with the BBC as free-to-air “partner”, beating ITV. So the BBC may now have less money to throw at the Six Nations, whose controlling unions are either individually running at a loss or certainly of a mind to look seriously at the best financial offer. The BBC’s soon-to-depart head of sport, Barbara Slater, warned of this to the Commons’ culture, media and sport select committee in November.

Amazon Prime have reportedly given up bidding for the 2024 and 2025 autumn series, with TNT favourites to get them, and all the negotiations should be seen in the context of the impending World Nations competition in 2026, to which the Six Nations will collectively sell their home rights. An audience of 6.3 million for Scotland vs England on BBC – when Duhan van der Merwe plundered a superb hat-trick of tries – suggests a decline from former glories, although the Beeb also pulls in eyeballs and ears with its iPlayer, website and podcasts.

Can the Six Nations afford to go behind a paywall? Can they afford not to? If they do it, they must show the public how and where the extra money is benefitting the sport.

Club rugby behind a paywall attracts audiences in the tens of thousands, although the Premiership plans to return with a bang next week, with a crowd of 60,000 for Saracens vs Harlequins at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and the run-in and play-offs will be marketed in the same way as the “Derby Weekend” and festive fixtures earlier this season.

Also during this season – it has been a busy one, that’s for sure – the lawsuit brought against rugby governing bodies over the handling of concussion had its preliminary proceedings, at which a daunting array of legal eagles were ranged on the establishment’s side, against those representing hundreds of players claiming compensation. It will be next year before the case is heard, if at all. It feels like a vulture circling, and at the same time maybe best for the game if the row is resolved, legally, once and for all.

The knock-on effect on the field is continued intolerance of contact with the head, and it cost the France lock Paul Willemse a sending-off in that first match in Marseille. At lower levels of rugby, the legal tackle height has been lowered, and this is a likely development for the elite.

Generally, though, grumbles about the laws and refereeing have been thankfully few (famous last words, ahead of a tumultuous final round in Cardiff, Dublin and Lyon!). The so-called “Dupont law” has given us very occasional bouts of kick tennis, and the law has been tweaked in Super Rugby – back to a similar version of what it used to be, funnily enough. Similarly, the resetting of scrums is occasionally a bore, but as a package, there is enough flow and variety to enthral.

And if the absence of the eponymous Antoine Dupont was more harmful to France than some of us Grand Slam predictors had given credit for, it also ushered in the exciting Nolann le Garrec, and so it goes.

Pre-championship, we also had the first series of Full Contact, a documentary series on the 2023 Six Nations on Netflix. Mixed reviews have not deterred the commissioning of a second series, and it is good exposure for rugby, even if the Formula One Drive to Survive concentration on individual stars is less straightforward. Louis Rees-Zammit was highlighted in the 2023 series; in 2024 we have not even seen him as he chose a crack at the NFL instead: a blow to Wales, whose rebuilding is bringing pain but is fascinating in itself.

Dupont has switched temporarily to France’s Olympic Sevens team, with a spectacular initial impact. There again, the Marcus Smith storyline may have unexpectedly held up. A mixed 2023 Six Nations for the England fly-half looked like tailing off into a non-existent 2024 when he was injured in a Spanish training camp.

But he returned with a fist-pumping winning drop goal against the Irish last week and, if he can be part of a highly unlikely England charge to the title on Saturday – they need a bonus-point win in France while Ireland get nothing at home to Scotland – the trailer for the broadcast in 2025 (the edit and production takes at least 20 weeks, apparently) will be scripted right there.

Bonus points have reared as a potential problem. Steve Borthwick, the England head coach whose report card will depend on Saturday’s performance in Lyon, said on Thursday everyone knew the rules and they are getting on with it. But it surely cannot be right in a league of six teams that four wins could leave you below a team with three.

Ireland should beat the Scots, anyway, and shove the debate to the back burner, where we also have the running sore of how Portugal, Georgia and other European nations bubbling under will ever get on, while the Six Nations is a closed shop.

With English rugby still waiting on the announcement of a new Professional Game Partnership, the rule remains that players such as Maro Itoje who have played more than 65 per cent of the Six Nations will sit out one of the subsequent four weeks.

All in all, there are many complications in rugby, still. So maybe the conclusion is the very simplicity of the Six Nations is what keeps it compelling.


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