This is a thread about the 2020 Six Nations, formerly the Five Nations

Former Former

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

With England, Scotland and Wales being non-EU countries, would any 'free-to-air list' legislation apply to Ireland away games in these countries anyway?

Yes. Unless the UK government specifically repeals it, the free-to-air list will remain in place.

However, the Six Nations (as in Ireland) is not on the list in the UK, so long as highlights are available free.

And a Tory government, particularly this Tory government, is very unlikely to interfere here.

icdg

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

With England, Scotland and Wales being non-EU countries, would any 'free-to-air list' legislation apply to Ireland away games in these countries anyway?

I’m not sure of the question.

If you mean can the Irish government legislate to require free to air coverage within Ireland of games taking place outside of Ireland, absolutely. Several events on the FTA list have never been held in Ireland - the FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euros finals, for instance.

If you mean can the Irish government legislate to require free to air coverage outside of Ireland of events taking place either inside or outside of Ireland, the answer is no. But other countries including the U.K. operate their own similar lists. The U.K. position regarding the Six Nations is similar to Ireland - protected for highlights only.

ArmaniJeanss

Sorry, badly phrased question alright.

Yes, I meant can the Irish government demand via the free-to-air list, that England/Wales/Scot v Ireland are shown free-to-air?

I understand as you say that the FIFA World Cup etc is on the list, but FIFA/UEFA/IOC are all organisations which co-operate with the EU.

So I guess I'm questioning what would happen in a situation where the holder of the 6N broadcast rights decided to ignore the EU for those matches which take place in a non-EU country.

irelandrover

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Sorry, badly phrased question alright.

Yes, I meant can the Irish government demand via the free-to-air list, that England/Wales/Scot v Ireland are shown free-to-air?

I understand as you say that the FIFA World Cup etc is on the list, but FIFA/UEFA/IOC are all organisations which co-operate with the EU.

So I guess I'm questioning what would happen in a situation where the holder of the 6N broadcast rights decided to ignore the EU for those matches which take place in a non-EU country.

Isn't it just the case that whoever bids for the rights in Ireland has to show it free to air? So sky can bid and win the rights but then they have to show it free to air.

un5byh7sqpd2x0

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Hardly a disgrace from Sky, if anything blame the unions and CVC. Sky just put in the bid for what they think it's worth to them, the unions and CVC are the ones who sell the rights to them.

Nothing to do with the unions. 6 Nations Ltd own the rights

Burkie1203

awec wrote: »

Going to paytv is a one way move. Can you think of anything substantial that has went to pay tv then back to free to air?

England cricket board designed a whole new format just to get back on FTA

un5byh7sqpd2x0

Anyone else think France v Ireland will not go ahead? As it stands, any gatherings of > 5000 people in France are banned and it’s unlikely to improve any time soon

ArmaniJeanss

Manuel Creamy Ballpark wrote: »

Anyone else think France v Ireland will not go ahead? As it stands, any gatherings of > 5000 people in France are banned and it’s unlikely to improve any time soon

That doesn't apply to outdoor sports events. La Ligue fixtures went ahead yesterday with larger attendances than 5K.

OldRio

There is a meeting in Paris today of the 6 nations committee with regard to the virus and future fixtures

Burkie1203

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

That doesn't apply to outdoor sports events. La Ligue fixtures went ahead yesterday with larger attendances than 5K.

Paris half marathon got canned on saturday, due to take place yesterday. 44000

2 friends found out as they got into the airport in Paris on Saturday lunchtime

Buer

It's probably too tight a timeframe but I half expect the growth of the virus to stagnate in the coming weeks and the number of active cases to eventually drop. The control of the spread within China is working with only 13k cases outside Hubei.

Unfortunately, this was achieved by putting a large part of the country into lockdown but I don't think similar measures will be required here. With that said, I would think sensible measures are required including the postponement of mass movements of people internationally such as 6N matches. The UK have managed to keep a far lower rate of infection to date compared to France and I'm sure they'll be happy to keep it that way with France set to visit Scotland this weekend.

random_banter

Buer wrote: »

It's probably too tight a timeframe but I half expect the growth of the virus to stagnate in the coming weeks and the number of active cases to eventually drop. The control of the spread within China is working with only 13k cases outside Hubei.

Unfortunately, this was achieved by putting a large part of the country into lockdown but I don't think similar measures will be required here. With that said, I would think sensible measures are required including the postponement of mass movements of people internationally such as 6N matches. The UK have managed to keep a far lower rate of infection to date compared to France and I'm sure they'll be happy to keep it that way with France set to visit Scotland this weekend.

Cancelling an event like the 6N is one thing, but I think you'll get a lot of people travelling anyway, unless governments put the locations on a no-go list. Insurance companies won't recoup for lost flights and hotel money etc. unless the location ends up on a no-go list (for us, the DFA list). Expect to see lots of Italians in town this coming weekend.

Perhaps the risk of spread isn't as bad if all the attendees aren't piling into a stadium together?

For us, having flights, hotel, tickets to Paris game for the 14th booked means we will lose money if the event itself is cancelled but the location doesn't go on the DFA no-go list. So we're just waiting each day for updates on the situation in Paris and for the game. I think it's hard to predict what will happen.

(Also, if someone knows better than me with regard to insurance, feel free to correct me.)

BonnieSituation

random_banter wrote: »

Cancelling an event like the 6N is one thing, but I think you'll get a lot of people travelling anyway, unless governments put the locations on a no-go list. Insurance companies won't recoup for lost flights and hotel money etc. unless the location ends up on a no-go list (for us, the DFA list). Expect to see lots of Italians in town this coming weekend.

Perhaps the risk of spread isn't as bad if all the attendees aren't piling into a stadium together?

For us, having flights, hotel, tickets to Paris game for the 14th booked means we will lose money if the event itself is cancelled but the location doesn't go on the DFA no-go list. So we're just waiting each day for updates on the situation in Paris and for the game. I think it's hard to predict what will happen.

(Also, if someone knows better than me with regard to insurance, feel free to correct me.)

We're in the same boat re Paris and insurance/costs.

Still intending to travel over anyway though as we're going via Amsterdam and down on the train on Saturday morning.

Sure, we'll see how it all pans out.

Cookiemunster

Well the outcome from today's meeting is that the remaining games go ahead unless the relevant governments say they can't. No update on a new date for the Italy match.

salmocab

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Well the outcome from today's meeting is that the remaining games go ahead unless the relevant governments say they can't. No update on a new date for the Italy match.

I’d say they’ll be waiting on seeing how important the result is and how many other games need to be played too before deciding how to go about it.

damianmcr

Manuel Creamy Ballpark wrote: »

Nothing to do with the unions. 6 Nations Ltd own the rights

And who do you think owns that?:rolleyes:

un5byh7sqpd2x0

damianmcr wrote: »

And who do you think owns that?:rolleyes:

CVC mostly, along with the 6 unions.

Podge_irl

Manuel Creamy Ballpark wrote: »

CVC mostly, along with the 6 unions.

A 15% share very much does not equate to "mostly" owning something

Burkie1203

Italy v England in doubt

https://twitter.com/IrishSunOnline/status/1234803284222861312?s=19


I see the swiss have delayed their football league by 3 weeks to ~March 23rd

icdg

Behind a paywall, but the (London) Times has published a story this morning regarding the TV rights tender that more or less completely contradicts the Rugby Paper’s story. According to this story, the rights are being split into three five game packages. No longer stablemates of Sky, they are touting Prime Video instead.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/amazon-eyes-six-nations-in-tv-rights-shake-up-gm698fbms

sydthebeat

icdg wrote: »

Behind a paywall, but the (London) Times has published a story this morning regarding the TV rights tender that more or less completely contradicts the Rugby Paper’s story. According to this story, the rights are being split into three five game packages. No longer stablemates of Sky, they are touting Prime Video instead.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/amazon-eyes-six-nations-in-tv-rights-shake-up-gm698fbms

Six Nations games could be broadcast by Amazon from 2022.

The Six Nations Championship is accepting bids for the next round of TV rights, which is to be completed by the end of the month, and Amazon is one of the online broadcasters that has shown interest in buying a stake in the game.

The rights package is being divided up into three tranches of five matches a year with the top tranche including the most commercially attractive games.

Broadcasters are invited to bid for as many slices of the deal as they wish. Though it is likely that at least one slice will go to one of the terrestrial broadcasters, the BBC or ITV, it is not impossible that one single broadcaster could buy up all three.

Amazon is still something of a newcomer to sports broadcasting. However, it is a fast-growing force in tennis and broadcast its first Premier League football games in December.

It will be one of a number of pay-TV networks who will bid for the rights to show the Six Nations. At the same time that the Championship, England’s second tier, is being sold, broadcasters are bidding for rights to future autumn international series too.

The six unions who are selling these rights are under pressure to keep the sport on terrestrial television. In France, it is not possible to sell the Six Nations to a pay-TV broadcaster as it is protected as one of the “crown jewels” of the nation’s sport. There is no such deal in the UK.

Many in the game are concerned by the cricket case study. Cricket took its rights away from terrestrial television and suffered a downturn in audiences and participation.

Martin Johnson, the former England captain, said it would be “terrible” if the Six Nations was moved to pay-TV. He added: “I have a lot of freinds who don’t watch any other rugby, but they love the Six Nations. There are certain things that are very traditional, that people have watched all their lives.”

Q&A
Who has broadcasting rights for the Six Nations?
BBC made a successful joint bid with ITV, worth about £90 million a year, for live coverage from 2016 until 2021, staving off the threat of Sky. All home games from France, Scotland and Wales are on BBC One; all home games from England, Ireland and Italy are on ITV. S4C has the rights to show Wales games.

Have rights caused trouble before?
England’s home matches were on Sky from 1997 to 2002. The RFU’s decision to sign that deal was controversial and England were thrown out of the Five Nations and then reinstated. Since 2002, all matches have been on free-to-air TV.

And the “crown jewels”?
In accordance with the Broadcasting Act 1996, some sporting events of national interest have to be broadcast on terrestrial television. Six Nations matches involving the home nations are in group B, meaning they can be screened on pay-TV with secondary rights for terrestrial channels; events in group A must have live coverage on free-to-air channels.

What are viewing figures for the Six Nations?
England’s defeat by France in the opening round of this year’s tournament had a peak audience of seven million on BBC One.

Former Former

Jesus. The only thing worse than going to pay TV would be slicing up the coverage between multiple providers.

I do like the idea of someone like Amazon taking it over. I've completely moved away from using traditional TV. Using a sky or upc wrecks my head. Their menus are so unbelievably slow to navigate. Dodgy boxes are even worse albeit cheaper. If Amazon delivered good streaming service that I can cast to a bigger screen, that would get me paying for TV again. Dividing it up will keep me using dodgy streams though.

Squidgy Black

Bojo and the UK government talking about potentially cancelling large gatherings including sports events. No plan in place yet but it's part of their mitigation so could come into effect.

Squidgy Black

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Bojo and the UK government talking about potentially cancelling large gatherings including sports events. No plan in place yet but it's part of their mitigation so could come into effect.

Current UK government is far too malicious and dishonest to take anything at face value. They'd cause a panic if there was a benefit in it for them.

That said I'm expecting public events and tourism to be hit badly the next 3 - 6 months.

dub_skav

sydthebeat wrote: »

The rights package is being divided up into three tranches of five matches a year with the top tranche including the most commercially attractive games.

You have to hand it to Joe and Andy, sacrificing the World Cup and serving up the whupping by England, all to make our games less attractive and more likely to be free to air.

4D chess indeed.

Yeah_Right

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I do like the idea of someone like Amazon taking it over. I've completely moved away from using traditional TV. Using a sky or upc wrecks my head. Their menus are so unbelievably slow to navigate. Dodgy boxes are even worse albeit cheaper. If Amazon delivered good streaming service that I can cast to a bigger screen, that would get me paying for TV again. Dividing it up will keep me using dodgy streams though.

NZ had the RWC last year on a streaming service. Apparently it was a disaster.

Yeah_Right

Yeah_Right wrote: »

NZ had the RWC last year on a streaming service. Apparently it was a disaster.

Yeah definitely a danger. RTE player is known to be ****e from time to time. I'd trust a massive company like Amazon with their AWS to be able to deal with huge spikes in traffic though. The likes of Netflix is seamless but that's not live TV.

damianmcr

Manuel Creamy Ballpark wrote: »

CVC mostly, along with the 6 unions.

Oh dear

prawnsambo

Mako Vunipola now in self isolation after travelling through Hong Kong on his way back from Tonga.

un5byh7sqpd2x0

Podge_irl wrote: »

A 15% share very much does not equate to "mostly" owning something

The remaining 85% divided by 6 is ~ 14% so 15% is the majority shareholder.

Squidgy Black

Manuel Creamy Ballpark wrote: »

The remaining 85% divided by 6 is ~ 14% so 15% is the majority shareholder.

That's not a majority shareholding...... Majority shareholding is if they had 51% or more of the shares and could make decisions themselves. But they don't, they're as much a partner as any of the unions and need them to vote on their side to make anything happen.

Podge_irl

Manuel Creamy Ballpark wrote: »

The remaining 85% divided by 6 is ~ 14% so 15% is the majority shareholder.

It's a marginal plurality which is worth almost precisely feck all.

Dubinusa

I was watching a movie last nite on Amazon prime. The stream was shyte. I got about 40 minutes of good streaming. I haven't finished the movie.

sydthebeat

Manuel Creamy Ballpark wrote: »

The remaining 85% divided by 6 is ~ 14% so 15% is the majority shareholder.

anyway, its not 15%

its one seventh of the total share = 14.286%

Burkie1203

2nd corona case here, east of the country



https://twitter.com/IFTVofficial/status/1234929586108018689?s=19

28064212

sydthebeat wrote: »

anyway, its not 15%

its one seventh of the total share = 14.286%

Also, CVC don't currently own any part of the Six Nations, no deal has been finalised yet

Clegg

Mako Vunipola is out of this weekends England v Wales game. He's self-isolating on advice from England's team doctors. He was back in Tonga for personal reasons a few weeks ago and on his return to England he had to travel through Hong Kong were the Corona virus is prevalent. He's not showing any symptoms but is listening to doctors advice.

https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1234970106326765573?s=19

Burkie1203

Clegg wrote: »

Mako Vunipola is out of this weekends England v Wales game. He's self-isolating on advice from England's team doctors. He was back in Tonga for personal reasons a few weeks ago and on his return to England he had to travel through Hong Kong were the Corona virus is prevalent. He's not showing any symptoms but is listening to doctors advice.

https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1234970106326765573?s=19

He trained with Saracens today though apparently then Eddie Jones decided otherwise

https://twitter.com/willis_macp/status/1234976222175612928?s=19

Burkie1203

Irresponsible IMO

https://twitter.com/chjones9/status/1234975263521263618?s=19

prawnsambo

Burkie1203 wrote: »

Irresponsible IMO

https://twitter.com/chjones9/status/1234975263521263618?s=19

Darwin award incoming for Saracens. Winning.

Cookiemunster

Saracens released a statement.

Billy Vunipola and Mako Vunipola returned to Saracens after visiting family in Tonga which included a short stop at Hong Kong Airport.

Travellers returning from Hong Kong are not currently subject to mandatory quarantine or self-isolation unless they become symptomatic.

Neither Billy or Mako have displayed symptoms of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) and on their return to London were assessed by the club’s medical staff.

The duo have been around the Saracens environment for the past couple of days, with the latter available for selection this weekend.

Saracens will continue to follow the Public Health England and World Health Organisation regulations surrounding coronavirus and the medical staff will be closely monitoring Billy and Mako on a regular basis.

Looks like Saracens following current protocol, but England being extra cautious to me.

Cookiemunster

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Saracens released a statement.



Looks like Saracens following current protocol, but England being extra cautious to me.

England lose a chunk of their players and their six nations is over (if it isn't over already).

Saracens have nothing to play for until April when chances are everything is going to be called off anyway so obviously they've fewer direct f**ks to give.

jacothelad

Clegg wrote: »

Mako Vunipola is out of this weekends England v Wales game. He's self-isolating on advice from England's team doctors. He was back in Tonga for personal reasons a few weeks ago and on his return to England he had to travel through Hong Kong were the Corona virus is prevalent. He's not showing any symptoms but is listening to doctors advice.

https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1234970106326765573?s=19

Yet he is training with Saracens and listed for the team this weekend. What a hero.

Former Former

Saracens are in the right here

sydthebeat

Former Former wrote: »

Saracens are in the right here

Saracens are just employing a laxer criterion here

there is no right or wrong.

Former Former

sydthebeat wrote: »

Saracens are just employing a laxer criterion here

there is no right or wrong.

Sorry, wasn't implying England are wrong, they're being ultra cautious which is fine but equally Saracens are not doing anything wrong either.

Squidgy Black

Former Former wrote: »

Sorry, wasn't implying England are wrong, they're being ultra cautious which is fine but equally Saracens are not doing anything wrong either.

You could argue that being in the Saracens facility under constant monitoring isn't a bad thing either if he does start to display symptoms they'd catch it pretty quick.

Although the counter argument would be well he's potentially spread it to the rest of the team if that was the case.

sydthebeat

Former Former wrote: »

Sorry, wasn't implying England are wrong, they're being ultra cautious which is fine but equally Saracens are not doing anything wrong either.

100% agreed.

Zzippy

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Although the counter argument would be well he's potentially spread it to the rest of the team if that was the case.

Be an awful shame, wouldn't it...