Desperation to keep games off pay-TV is holding up £300m CVC deal and there is a danger rugby union could be left behind
When an advisory panel reviewed in 2009 the list of sporting events that had to be broadcast on terrestrial television, the Welsh Assembly submitted a proposal that the Group A list, made up of matches or tournaments that could not be sold to pay TV for live coverage, should include Wales’s home matches in the Six Nations.
It argued that as the television audience for those games amounted to 65% of the population, the national interest demanded that they be kept free for all. The panel agreed and amended the Group A list accordingly in their report for the secretary of state for culture, media and sport, but before a decision was made, there was a change of government and nothing happened.
Related: Broadcasting rights impasse puts CVC’s £300m Six Nations deal in peril
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