Rugby Six Nations should remain on free-to-air TV – John Grogan

He tells me that watching ITV Racing on a Saturday afternoon is keeping him going. For an hour or two each week the thrill of studying the form and betting no more than £5 in total is providing an all too welcome diversion.

Live sport on television has given millions of people struggling around the world something else to think and talk about – a happy place to go to.

Sky and BT Sports report significantly increased viewing figures, but at a time when many families cannot afford to pay subscriptions, free-to-air sport is also coming into its own.

In May 2020 Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Parliament that the return of sport on the box “could provide a much needed boost to national morale”.

The English Premier League was encouraged by the Government to offer some of their fixtures being played behind closed doors to terrestrial broadcasters. The BBC’s coverage of Southampton versus Manchester City subsequently became the most watched Premier League match ever in the UK.

Of course, since the 1950s, governments of all colours have not relied simply on exhortation to ensure that some of the ‘crown jewels’ of sport are available for all to enjoy.

The listed events legislation enables the designation of certain sporting occasions which must then be offered at a fair and reasonable price to free-to-air television.

It is because of a law passed by Parliament that for the price of a TV licence the entire nation can watch 
the Football World Cup, the Olympics, 
the Wimbledon finals and the FA Cup Final.

This weekend the Rugby Six Nations (which is a listed event only for highlights and not live coverage) begins with all matches shared by the BBC and ITV.

On past experience up to nine million viewers are likely to be watching. Sadly all or part of future tournaments may be hidden behind a paywall.

The Six Nations has been negotiating to sell a stake of about 14 per cent of their commercial rights to CVC Capital for around £300m.

In effect the private equity partners will become a seventh nation around the table when it comes to negotiating the TV rights from the 2022 season onwards. It is perhaps unlikely that free-to-air access will be top of their agenda.

The Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has issued guidance that a listed event should contain ‘an element which serves to 
unite the nation, a shared point on the national calendar, not solely of interest to those who follow the sport in 
question’.

It is hard to think of an event which ticks those boxes better than the Six Nations.

Moreover, at a time when the United Kingdom itself is in danger of breaking apart, it would seem politically prudent to cherish and maintain access to something which binds the four nations together.

Nevertheless. the Government rejected an appeal last March from the all-party DCMS Select Committee to add live coverage of the tournament to the protected list.

Meanwhile, in Ireland, Sports Minister Catherine Martin has just completed a consultation on expanding their own list of events.

It is anticipated that the Irish government will soon legislate that all the Republic’s fixtures in the Six Nations are reserved for free-to-air coverage.

For the moment armchair cricket fans in Great Britain working from home have an unexpected bonus to enjoy with Channel 4’s coverage of the India v England series that was beginning early this morning and where Yorkshire Joe Root was due to receive his landmark 100th Test cap.

Not since 2005 has the long form of 
the game has been on free-to-air TV. Sky and BT appear to be saving their war chests to bid for rights to the Ashes next winter.

A whole generation in the United Kingdom has grown up with little exposure to international cricket on free-to-air TV and participation in the game has plummeted.

Thanks to Channel 4, new and old cricket supporters may well get a taste 
for watching Test matches and want more. In Australia the House of Representatives, and the Lok Sabha in India, have long since insisted on some free-to-air exposure for their national cricket teams without any obvious adverse impact on their sporting or financial success.

It is time the House of Commons followed suit so that the whole nation rich and poor together do not have to wait another 16 years to watch England play cricket – top level sport on terrestrial television matters more than ever.

John Grogan is the former Labour MP for Keighley and Ilkley, and ardent sports fan.

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