Six Nations touches down on TV3 after beating RTÉ to rights

RTÉ Sport last night insisted they were still at the negotiating table for major sports television rights despite being outbid by TV3 yesterday for the Six Nations Championship from 2018.

In another rights coup for the commercial station, which beat the national broadcaster in the bidding for the recent Rugby World Cup, TV3 was last night celebrating a successful bid to secure a four-year deal from 2018 to 2021 to provide free-to-air live coverage of every game in the Northern Hemisphere championship as well as promising preview, magazine, highlights and delayed match replay programming around the tournament.

Winning the competitive tender process was seen as a reward for TV3’s World Cup coverage, which despite viewer complaints about the frequency of advertising breaks, was deemed a commercial success.

“We are delighted to be working with TV3 on developing the interest in the Championship and to ultimately grow this wonderful competition in Ireland,” Six Nations Rugby chief executive John Feehan said.

“TV3’s coverage of Rugby World Cup was very successful and we believe that they will inject new and exciting ideas in the broadcasting of the Six Nations Championship.”

In July, the BBC was forced to share its Six Nations rights with commercial rival ITV in a six-year deal starting in 2016 in order to keep the championship free-to-air and TV3’s Group Director of Broadcasting Niall Cogley, a former head of sport at RTÉ hailed yesterday’s decision as a “great day” for Irish viewers.

“We feel for our friends in RTÉ, it’s a tough day for them but... it’s a great day for everyone,” Cogley told Today FM’s Last Word with Matt Cooper, who served as TV3’s lead presenter of its World Cup coverage.

“It’s a great day for viewers, for the Six Nations, for Irish Rugby and for all the viewers who get this stuff and they don’t have to pay for it. This is free television in every sense of theword and we’re delighted to be a part of that.”

Cogley’s successor as RTÉ group head of sport Ryle Nugent conceded it had been an extremely disappointing to lose the Six Nations rights but during a testy exchange with RTÉ Radio One Drivetime presenter Phillip Boucher-Hayes last night said the broadcaster had to accept it was no longer the biggest player in the Irish sports rights market.

“Did we put our best forward, I can say unequivocally we did,” Nugent said of his bid that went as as far it could with public money.

“These are the plain facts of it, we’re now in a market where any suggestion that RTÉ is the biggest fish in the pond is frankly not true. We are in a situation where there are broadcasters , whether they be Irish or with an interest in the Irish market from the UK, for example Sky or BT, with extremely deep pockets.

“It is an incredibly competitive market and RTÉ doesn’t have the god-given right to win every sports right that comes into the market. Do we want to serve that mission statement of national teams, national games and major events, unequivocally we do and the portfolio we have at our disposal clearly identifies that.

“Are we going to win everything, clearly from today the answer to that is no and we have to accept that we’re going to win and lose in measure over the coming period of time. But we are determined to invest money in the correct sports rights for the audience. This is one we wanted and it didn’t come to fruition.”

Citing the GAA Championships, the Olympic Games and football’s European Championships as jewels in RTÉ’s crown for 2016, Nugent insisted there was life in his department yet and that RTÉ Sport would look to re-enter the rugby rights market in future, not least were the IRFU’s Government-backed bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup were to prove successful.

“Clearly a Rugby World Cup that was to happen on this island would arguably be the biggest sports event that will ever come to this island so of course we would, absolutely. We will show our interest when the rights come up for the Rugby World Cup in Japan in 2019, as we will when the GAA Championship rights come up for renegotiation, when the soccer qualifiers and major events come up we will be at the table.

“We’ve lost the RBS 6 Nations from 2018, we have a resource there now where we will look at strategically what is the best way to provide output... what is available in the market to supplement what we’re already doing. But the suggestion of the ultimate demise of RTÉ Sport is overexaggerated.

“There’s no question we still have a strong, strong portfolio.”