John McGuigan makes Six Nations free-to-air plea ahead of TV renewals

In January, the UK government rejected calls to protect the broadcast rights for the Six Nations from being sold to the highest bidder. 

Under the so-called "crown jewels" list of sporting events, live coverage of the Rugby World Cup final, the football World Cups, the Olympic Games and Wimbledon finals have to be offered to free-to-air TV channels such as the BBC, ITV or Channel 4. 

But McGuigan said Scottish Rugby want the tournament to remain on free-to-air television.  

“Every nation is working with their government about how we create that balance. What you need from the government, who has a heavy influence over the free-to-air piece, is being realistic about if we’re trying to retain that right, you need to be realistic about what that means.  

“You can’t just demand it as a principle and expect us to take a huge cut in our ability to drive revenue.  

“We’ve got to find a point where it is equitable to give free access, but we don’t damage our revenue opportunity to a greater extent. It’s going to be finding the equilibrium. From our position, we would definitely want free-to-air as an integral part of any future deal."  

McGuigan said attracting a new, younger audience to the sport is also a focus.  

“The average viewing time of somebody under 25 is something like a minute and a half, so it’s about how you grow up to that,” he added during an hour-long media briefing at Murrayfield this week.  

In 2021, private equity giant CVC agreed a multi-million-pound deal to buy a stake in the Six Nations, and they have been a driving force behind the behind-the-scenes Netflix ‘Full Contact’ series.  

McGuigan said it is still too early to say whether their investment has been a good thing for either party. 

He said: “The story that’s always played is how long it has taken to get players’ names on the backs of shirts. You think that decision would be made on day one.  

“If your kid is standing beside you in the stadium and says, ‘who’s Finn Russell?’ and you go ‘it’s the wee guy standing beside the big guy’ because you actually can’t see his name, that’s not about providing access to our sport. 

“I think CVC look at things like that and think as a sport we need to wake up to what it takes in order to be available and interesting to a non-traditional-rugby audience.  

“Whilst you still want to cater to a traditional rugby audience, you’ve also got to think about the discretionary opportunity you’ve got with other people who might just dip in and out.  

“How do you make it exciting and easy to understand without losing the heart of the sport? 

"We’re too early to say if CVC has been a good thing or a bad thing. I think the bigger question is can you see a way of rugby surviving without external support? I think definitely not.  

“Whether it’s CVC or somebody else, that’s going to be part of the make-up of rugby going forward.”