The Pitch: URC broadcast rights are out to tender — but what will new deals reveal?
Photo Brendan Thomond Scores Hansen Of The Try Daly During At Match Despite Munster His Side's Of Park Shane Moran/sportsfile Mack Tackle Fourth Of Connacht The By Urc
Ireland and UK TV rights for the United Rugby Championship will be decided in the weeks ahead, shedding a light on the current state of the game, in an increasingly uncertain broadcast environment.
In the coming week, a most likely free-to-air combination of RTÉ and TG4 will agree fees of not-more than €6m for licences to broadcast the competition here, featuring clubs from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Italy and South Africa.
In UK exclusive deals, what Premier Sports decide to do will indicate the growing power and influence being injected into sports broadcasting by the Mickey O’Rourke-run broadcaster.
There will be others vying for assets, with most interest in how TNT Sports and UK terrestrial networks with regional affiliations - like ITV – play their hands.
Will this be the time for a digital disrupter to make a move, with a DAZN branching out on its ever-extending suite of global sports assets?
Digital audience is an area of strength for the URC as it maintains its position “as the rugby competition with the fastest growth rate on social media, in addition to the league’s phenomenal rise on YouTube”.
Last season its total audience figure of 47.7million impressively crushed the previous high mark of 37.4million set in 2023.
There is clearly enormous value in the competition for bidders, but when the current round of negotiations – which does not include Italy and South African rights - plays out, it’s the price paid in fees which will be of most interest.
These figures won’t be revealed by the broadcasters or by the URC, but they will emerge, and when they do they will tell a story about consumer confidence in the competition, and in rugby more generally.
Ireland is so critical to any current and future analyses and that €6m figure will be the one to watch.
Just like in France, the club game here is booming, while internationally Ireland senior men’s games compete with, and sometimes beat, All-Ireland finals for audiences of more than one million when it comes to the most watched sports on television.
But if the price being paid by Irish networks for URC rights dips significantly below the current €6m value – as some say may happen – then rugby has a problem.
Even if it stays just below flat – or under €6m – then the URC has a challenge with the value of product going down, particularly in such a favourable territory.
A flat price would be good given the current circumstances, which we’ll explore later, and it’s not unusual for sports rights not to rise with each round of new deals.
Even the Premier League has experienced some flatlining in recent years despite a £6.7bn UK deal in place from next year to 2029 - slightly down on annual fees from the current £1.7bn per annum to £1.67bn in future exchanges with Sky Sports, TNT Sports and BBC (highlights).
The problem for rugby is that any dip now comes during what is an extremely challenging time for union and the key organisations which run the sport’s various competitions, including the URC, EPCR (European Professional Club Rugby) – organisers of the Champions and Challenge Cups – and even Six Nations Rugby.
Any devaluation on the game will be considered in the light of what is happening in England, where the game is entering what on the face of it looks like a severe depression.
As big as the English market is for rugby, the URC rights deals will not be a priority for the likes of TNT Sports or Sky Sports (whose rugby strategy is focused on the British and Irish Lions).
Last month Premier Sports stole a march on its UK rivals with its acquisition to become the lead broadcaster of the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup in Ireland in a three-year deal, which also covers UK rights.
England and the increasing challenges facing the RFU at national level as well as the ongoing issues with the insolvency and financial destruction of many of its top tier club sides marks a wider issue on the overall value of rugby as a product.
At the heart of the RFU’s problems is consumer confidence, which is having an adverse effect on commercial and broadcast rights revenues, while the clubs crisis is a more complex issue of ownership investment.
As was revealed by England’s governing body in recent weeks, it is undergoing a major restructure of the organisation – even despite a £100m deal with Allianz for naming rights at Twickenham.
Some 64 positions have been put at risk, with over 40 jobs being culled within the the organisation, due primarily to a decline in broadcast income, which along with a sponsorship decline, has resulted in a loss of £16m, directly linked to a fall in consumer confidence.
Such brand identity issues might seem unthinkable in Ireland, where the IRFU and its international and club sides are successful financial models, running at breakeven or better, with rich sponsorship support from premium brands.
Indeed, the horror show which has seen huge names like Wasps, London-Irish and other top tier sides going out of business is a world away from where the game is here.
But global dips in product are concerning for everyone, even the IRFU. If a big beast like England and its Gallagher Premiership is suffering, it does not look well for the overall stability of the game.
Much of the problem is that rugby is so fragmented across relatively small markets, where even the broadcasting of the game is deeply splintered, not to mention the emergence of third-party interests through equity investors.
CVC Capital Partners deal to buy up 14.25 per cent of the Six Nations, for an investment of (£365m) €428m, is a strategy based on growth through commercial and sponsorship outcomes, something which has suffered a setback with the RFU.
The English body has failed to reach broadcasting and other financial achievements, generating those £16m losses, and creating some panic around the CVC deal, which if faltering already may force a rethink of its rugby investment strategy?
Further down the food chain, Wales and Scotland have not been without their financial challenges, but when you have a stressed and increasingly under-pressure England, then there’s a fear that this contagion trickle will grow.
Christina Philippou, Associate Professor in Accounting and Sport Finance at the University of Portsmouth, believes English rugby is at something of fork in the road where there needs a serious evaluation across the board.
“On current trends the future is not bright - can they turn all of this negative stuff around?” she questions, in an interview with The Pitch.
“Of course they can, but that will be difficult based on the trends in England where we have massive losses, massive negative equity, technically insolvent clubs.
“That in turn sees interest wane as well, and if they’re not in the public consciousness that will have a negative effect also.”
Prof Philippou believes English rugby and brand amplification through broadcast deals is in need of a restructure particularly “in the way restructures are good for long term growth, not a change that is shortsighted”.
Rugby in England, she says, has a history of “taking the quick money (through) broadcasting deals behind the paywall which brings loss of interest, as well as selling percentages to private equity without necessarily have enough controls in those contracts”.
This difficulty makes the current auction of UK rights by the URC a particularly difficult sell, not least where you have a competition which doesn’t feature English clubs.
The fragmentation of the landscape, in particular just how many competitions exist, run by a multitude of organisations, as well as the seemingly endless cycle of rights deals, contributes to a deeply confusing and overly populated space.
This in turn allows different organisations and broadcasters to play off against each other for the attention of a relatively limited audience – compared to football – in network deals which are hardly worth mentioning.
This week, for example, ITV announced a two-year extension of its free-to-air broadcast partnership with Gallagher Premiership Rugby for just seven games a season – a deal which looks neither here nor there.
The Lions, European Professional Club Rugby, United Rugby Championship, Six Nations, and domestic brands add to the confusion of so may names vying for attention.
It’s the value of that attention that will reveal so much in the weeks ahead.
Energy giant Energia has been named as the Official Energy Partner of Connacht Rugby, expanding the energy company’s Irish Rugby sponsorship portfolio which includes Munster Rugby.
Its announcement Wednesday covers both the men’s and women’s teams with captain Cian Prendergast, alongside senior players Byron Ralston, Cathal Forde, Grace Browne Moran and Hannah Clarke attending the launch.
Energia’s Sponsorship and Events Manager Lorna Danaher said; “We are delighted to be named Official Energy Partner of Connacht Rugby at such an exciting time in the club's history.
“With the stadium development continuing at a rapid pace, and growth of the game in Connacht, we're delighted to join them on their journey."
Connacht Rugby’s Head of Commercial and Marketing Philip Patterson added: “We are delighted to partner with Energia, who have long supported us through our Business Club, and we look forward to continuing this partnership, which we hope will benefit the club both on and off the pitch.”
Despite a low-key Budget Day announcement, the Independent Golfer scheme is finally up and running.
110 golfers, who are currently not members of golf clubs, had signed up to the scheme on Day One according to sources.
The programme allows golfers without club membership to acquire golf handicaps for a fee of €65 (£55 in Northern Ireland), in a move which Golf Ireland say will increase participation across the sport.
Clubs are critical of the scheme which they say will impact future revenue figures.