Selling off the Six Nations would be a grave mistake
The Chairman of the Six Nations Council, the operating body which runs the annual rugby tournament, has decided to open up a bidding process which would see the contest offered to subscription providers. This decision has invoked a fierce backlash from the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee. MPs said on Friday that they are demanding answers about a measure which “could take the Six Nations behind a paywall”.
There are, of course, tangible benefits to the subscription system – and not only for the service provider. They provide funds for governing bodies – whether it is the Rugby Football League or the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) – to invest in the grassroots. It allows unprofitable clubs to be saved from oblivion by giving them a share of subscription proceeds. It provides viewers with a high quality service and raises the wages of playing staff.
Yet, by and large, to allow international rugby to move down the path already followed by cricket would be a grave mistake.
Many of us will have very fond memories of the great moments of rugby history they have witnessed on television. There are triumphs, such as that glorious morning on 22nd November 2003, when Jonny Wilkinson dropped a goal to take England to world cup glory. Then there are also great moments of excitement – especially for my Scottish editors – such as last year’s Calcutta Cup match at Twickenham, which saw the brave Jocks turn around a 31-point English lead, led by their brilliant maverick Finn Russell.
These are great events of national significance. They are the things that sporting dreams are made on – they inspire generations of sportsmen and get young people excited about participating at their local clubs. In the modern age, these players are our national champions – they fulfil the kind of role in our culture which was once supplied by heroic figures on the battlefields of Renaissance Europe.
The fact that these moments can be shared by a wide audience means that rugby has managed successfully to build on its existing fan base while also reaching out to a much wider audience beyond it. This is not just an indulgent romanticising of free sport – it is backed up by the hard arithmetic.
An extraordinary 10 million British viewers watched England play the All Blacks on ITV in this year’s World Cup Semi Final fixture against New Zealand. And, while it was not quite the spectacle that many had hoped it would be, a total of 12.8 million tuned into the World Cup Final two weeks later. There will no doubt have been similar numbers sat on the edges of their seats to watch Wales’s semi-final showdown against the Springboks.
Nor are such figures merely a product of World Cup fever – the regular Six Nations tournament, which takes place every year and is televised on the BBC, regularly rakes in large audiences. In 2019’s big crunch match between Wales and England – the battle which decided the competition – the BBC registered a peak 8.9 million viewers on BBC 1.
This trounces the “record” 2.1 million viewers who watched England’s spectacular victory over Australia in the Third Ashes Test in Leeds, which was shown on Sky Sports last Summer. Can you imagine how great an advertisement for Test Match Cricket it would have been if the whole country had enjoyed the opportunity to see Ben Stokes’ historic innings – just as terrestrial viewers were once able to gaze in awe upon Ian Botham’s heroic charge at Headingly in 1981?
The danger with putting up the paywall on such great national moments is that it makes them a preserve of those who can pay for the pleasure, and fails to connect the sport with those who cannot afford the fee. In depriving such viewers of a chance to see the game, a sport also closes itself off from gaining a recruitment divided whereby inspired viewers become encouraged to take up the game.
The ECB’s National Playing Survey in 2013 concluded that 40% of young people who play more than 12 weeks of cricket in a season were dropping out by the age of 19. This is despite the fact that there are packed out crowds at local grounds and at test matches every weekend in the season. All the while, instead of cultivating and promoting the already popular international Test Match and One Day formats, the ECB have instead taken a wild gamble on “the Hundred”, which will be shown by the BBC this year.
If those in charge of the Six Nations choose to sell one of international rugby’s prize tournaments to a private audience, then there may be unforeseen consequences. The sport risks going down the path of becoming an intensely specialised, professionalised game watched by a small minority, and played by an even smaller one.