RTE have yet to hammer out a deal to secure the rights to screen Ireland's Five Nations Championship match next year against England at Twickenham. At the moment, BSkyB television own the rights to all of England's home matches for the next five years, thanks to a deal they struck with the English Rugby Union some months ago.
Yesterday, the BBC bought the rights to all of the other championship matches involving Ireland, Scotland and Wales. This covers a minimum of 18 international matches, but the contract also includes 14 other fixtures where either Wales, Ireland or Scotland are hosts to international touring sides.
The BBC has now successfully kept most of the live Five Nations action away from the satellite giants BSkyB, who last year successfully negotiated an £87.5 million package with England for live Twickenham coverage.
It is, however, known that BSkyB can sub-license their rights to broadcast England's matches to other terrestrial broadcasters for delayed coverage or highlights. There is currently very strong interest in that actually happening. To suggest that it is the last time that England games will be seen on terrestrial television is, at this stage, misleading.
While head of RTE sport Tim O'Connor is "quite confident of getting together with Sky and doing a deal," any agreement to screen the Twickenham match is, at this point, very far down the road. fail to secure a deal, it If RTE will be the first time since the 1960s that the Irish people have not had the opportunity to watch Ireland play in the Five Nations Championship on the national network.
RTE had submitted a number of proposals to the Five Nations television sub-committee - the body who decided to accept the BBC offer - and hope to conclude their negotiations with them in seven days' time.
The RTE proposals are convoluted and tried to cover all eventualities in the bidding. The television sub-committee were also holding parallel discussions with the BBC and BSkyB, although BSkyB pulled out three weeks ago.
The thrust of the RTE venture now is to do a deal, possibly with the BBC, and then hopefully to secure a deal with Sky so that the Twickenham game can be seen on Irish terrestrial television.
RTE hope that the deal already struck between the television sub-committee and the BBC will have left open the rights in the Republic of Ireland.
Clearly RTE do not, at this moment, know exactly what property they have in their hands in order to do a deal with Sky until their deal with the television sub-committee is completed. According to RTE, their proposal to the subcommittee contains a lever which may enable them to get at Sky's game also. The BBC have not yet agreed any sort of trade off with Sky.
The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) welcomed the decision yesterday through a statement from their president Bobby Deasy.
warmly welcome today's statement from the Five Nations Committee which outlines the details of a new television contract for the Five Nations Championship over the next three years," it stated.
"The proceeds derived by the IRFU from this contract and the RFU's contract with BSkyB, will be in excess of £5 million per annum. This will be a significant boost to our finances and will enhance substantially our efforts to develop the game of rugby at every level within the Union.
"The fact that matches in the Championship played in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and France will be broadcast via terrestrial television is particularly pleasing to all and in line with the sentiments previously expressed by the IRFU."
. Liam Botham, son of former England cricket captain Ian Botham, has been drafted into England's under-21 squad for the match against France in Leicester tomorrow. Botham, who plays centre for West Hartlepool, decided on a rugby career after initially playing cricket for county side Hampshire.
