The Pitch: Are RTÉ's €25m football rights value for money?
Declan McBennett, RTÉ group head of sport. Photograph Moya Nolan
RTÉ now owns approximately €25m in football rights assets. Following the recent acquisitions of the Uefa Nations League and Euro 2024 qualifiers – Montrose owns all competitive agreements for the Rep of Ireland (men and women), along with World Cup Finals and Euros (Finals) rights, as well as Champions League and League of Ireland.
The spend has been described by a rival broadcaster as “a monopoly” and one which lacks “transparency and accountability” with accusations that such spending is not in the public interest, and does not service RTÉ’s public service remit.
The Pitch has assessed RTÉ’s top 5 football rights assets:
- UEFA Champions League (Tuesday games) x3 years and Finals - €10m
- EURO 2024 Finals - €6.5m
- FIFA World Cup Finals 2022 - €5m (agreed five years ago)
- EURO 2024 Qualifiers - €2m
- UEFA Nations League 2022 - €1.8m
In April, RTÉ head of sport Declan McBennett wrote in an op-ed on rte.ie saying that “RTÉ cannot and should not have a monopoly on sporting rights”.
Just two weeks ago, while announcing the purchase from Uefa of the Republic of Ireland’s upcoming Nations League and Euro qualifiers, he listed the Women’s national team, Under 21s and domestic (LOI) games as also being within the RTÉ portfolio.
In an interview with The Pitch, Paul Farrell, managing director of Virgin Media, said RTÉ has now bought so much sport with public money that it does not have enough channels or platforms to show it all.
“You have RTÉ’s head of sport saying he does not want to create a monopoly with sport – but basically demonstrating that he has so much of it he doesn’t know what to do with it,” said Farrell.
RTÉ faced some criticism in March when it decided not to live broadcast a Shamrock Rovers v Bohemians game, instead opting for Wales v France in Six Nations rugby.
“The clear reality is that RTÉ has built a monopoly using tens of millions of euro in public money and you have to question ‘is this the best use of public funding’ and where does it stop?” said Farrell.
The Virgin boss says there is no possibility RTÉ can recoup any of its €25m football investment commercially (through ad revenue or sponsorship), and questions the station’s financial responsibility.
“What I have noticed is that at a recent Oireachtas meeting RTÉ is never held to account to explain how money is spent, what it is investing in and where the money is going,” he added. “They rock up and tell whatever committee: ‘We never separate that out publicly, or what we use our money for’ - and that has suited them for years. Basically, it comes down to accountability and transparency.”
In January at a Public Accounts Committee hearing, RTÉ Director General Dee Forbes told a Dail Committee the station faced shortfalls of €65m in licence fees payments.
Despite facing such financial impacts the network still managed to surprise the football market with its purchase of Nations League rights earlier this month, ahead of rival bidders and after Sky Sports had withdrawn from the process.
Sources around the bidding process told The Pitch that the belief amongst broadcasters was that the Nations League were “woefully overvalued”, up to €2m (including costs), and did not represent value for money for just six matches.
Virgin Media will, of course, be aware that rights negotiations are a tough business, and it hasn’t done badly itself in recent trading with Uefa, securing all competitive non-Rep of Ireland fixtures up to World Cup 2026 – including all England games.
However the bigger questions are if RTÉ is getting value for money on behalf of the Irish public and whether it can it satisfy its own broadcasting pressures by owning so much football, GAA, rugby, horseracing, golf (Irish Open) and other sports – with so few platforms?
RTÉ did not respond for comment when contacted by The Pitch.
With a supplementary entry fee of €90k and prize money of €1.76m, The Derby falls outside our Top 10 most valuable horseraces in the world.
For a golden mile-and-a-half at Epsom Downs this Saturday, 18 of the best three-year-olds in racing will battle it out for the greatest prize in the sport.
Aidan O’Brien will lead the Irish charge in the Cazoo Derby with Changingoftheguard, Star Of India and Stone Age, and will hope to add to his record-breaking eight wins at the famous semi circuit.
There have been 22 Irish-trained Derby winners in the race’s 243-year history, with 12 of those coming since the turn of this century.
And it’s appropriate to mark the week in which the sport lost the great Lester Piggott, that his nine Derby wins as a jockey is a record that stands to this day.
Certainly there are far more valuable prize purses in racing, with the Derby failing to make it into our Top 10 index, assessed based on $US exchanges and current evaluations.
1. The Saudi Cup ($20m), Riyadh; 2. The Everest ($15m) Sydney; 3. The Dubai World Cup ($12m) Dubai; 4. Breeders Cup Classic ($6m) Various; 5. Japan Cup ($5.8m) Tokyo; 6. Melbourne Cup ($5.7m) Melbourne; 7. Breeders Cup Turf ($4m) Various; 8. Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe ($3m) Longchamp; 9. The Pegasus World Cup ($3m) Hallandale Beach; 10. Kentucky Derby ($3m) Louisville; The Derby ($1.9m) Epsom
As a betting event, the Cazoo Derby is the most punted flat race in the UK and Ireland, with the favourite having failed to win since 2015, when Golden Horn came in at 13/8 – with just six of the last 20 winners coming home as favourites.
15 odds-on favourites have failed to win the Derby, while the shortest-priced of the 18 odds-on winners of the race was Ladas at 2/9 in 1894, with Camelot the latest of those to succeed at 8/13 in 2012.
The real value for Derby winners is not in prize money but in stud fees which were reported as high as €500k for 2001 Derby winner, Galileo, the world’s most valuable stallion who earned up to €75m a year, and was at one stage valued at €200m.
Galileo made history in 2020 when siring his fifth Derby winner, Serpentine, who joined New Approach (2008), Ruler Of The World (2013), Australia (2014) and Anthony Van Dyck (2019).
AN IRISH ex-Nike, Adidas and IMG executive has won gold at one of world’s most prestigious sports business awards, by winning Event Organiser of the Year at the SPAI ceremony in Dubai.
Joe Rafferty is responsible for the delivery and operations of world class sports events to the Gulf region, where he has seen a staggering 6-1 return of investment for sports hosting in Oman.
The Dubliner is a key figure in the country, which is one of the less controversial of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), where heavyweights include the new power-brokers of growing sports dominance – including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The value of the Gulf region’s sports market is approximately $65m.
Rafferty’s work with Oman Sail, which hosted three major global events in just one year, also won a silver medal for Best Sports Event of the Year for the Youth World Sailing Championship, after it was pipped by the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix.
The former Sunderland AFC marketing director has built a model where Oman, while less well off than its high spending neighbours, has dramatically increased its sports portfolio in recent years.
Last year, with a budget €1.03m euros for its portfolio of events, ‘Omani Real’ saw a direct return of €3.15m, with indirect returns estimated €2.78m – a 6/1 gain for the country.
Rafferty may be lost to the Gulf for now, but as Sports Minister Jack Chambers devises the Government’s bidding and hosting of major events policy, he should perhaps give Joe a call.
