The BBC faces losing Six Nations coverage in a "difficult decision". Outgoing director of sports Barbara Slater told the Digital, Media and Sport select committee that “incredibly difficult” decisions would have to be taken due to sports rights having more than doubled in the past decade, while the BBC’s income had gone down 30% in real terms.
“We need a well-funded BBC if we are going to be able to continue to afford sports rights,” she told MPs. “Sports rights in the UK have more than doubled in the past decade. BBC’s income in real terms has gone down 30 per cent. It is incredibly difficult for the BBC to maintain, across a range of sports, the expectations of those governing bodies.”
She added: “With the Six Nations, like anything, we will have to assess the affordability at the time. Because it is very difficult for the BBC, on that trajectory of income, to continue to afford everything that we have. The truth is we’re probably not going to be the highest bidder, and it will come down to individual governing bodies as to how they balance that reach and revenue.”
READ MORE Met Office breaks silence on snow hitting UK across 11 dates in November and December
Asked whether there were genuine fears that the Six Nations and the Rugby World Cup could be lost from terrestrial TV, the director of ITV sport Niall Sloane said: “I don’t think we’ve ever done a deal where there wasn’t speculation, and probably well-founded speculation, that it could, in some or in whole, go to a pay operator.
“But it’s less so with the Rugby World Cup because we’ve only done two deals in my time at ITV,” he added. “I think they recognise that if you’re going to grow the game, something like the Rugby World Cup should be on free-to-air but there’s no guarantee of it whatsoever.”
“It’s no accident that for us, our audience on Saturday with Chelsea v Liverpool was a record breaking WSL audience,” Slater said. “There is a lot of logic about it being that Saturday afternoon slot. It doesn’t have to be that. But I think it would be wonderful to see football come together and do that."
