FORMER MINISTER for sport John O’Donoghue has challenged Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan’s proposals to designate key international and provincial rugby matches as free-to-air for television.
Mr O’Donoghue told the Dáil last night that if the plans went ahead they would be potentially disastrous for Irish rugby. He said if both events were designated free-to air it would lead to “volatility and commercial tensions” with the other five rugby unions.
His contribution was the first major political intervention that Mr O’Donoghue has made since stepping down as ceann comhairle last autumn. It also put the former Fianna Fáil minister in direct conflict with a Green Party Minister.
Mr O’Donoghue indicated he accepted the Irish Rugby Football Union’s (IRFU) argument that it could lose €10 million to €12 million per annum.
Mr Ryan suggested that Mr O’Donoghue had accepted the argument of the IRFU too readily.
“I would ask Deputy O’Donoghue to be more questioning . . . I do not believe that the €12 million loss, or anything like it, would materialise,” he said.
Mr O’Donoghue began by saying he accepted Mr Ryan’s bona fides but then argued that the growth of the game in Ireland correlated with the amount of money invested in the game. “This means that there is a balance required between revenue and TV exposure. I am concerned that a move to free-to-air would swing the pendulum all the way,” he said.
He said if the Six Nations and Heineken Cup were free-to air, it would exclude Sky and ESPN from bidding. This would leave the IRFU “to the mercy of the State broadcasters in Ireland and in the UK . . . who have shown time and again that they will use a monopoly position to their commercial advantage and drive down revenue. Ireland’s failure to bring unencumbered television rights to the table would inevitably reverse the position,” he said, arguing that the arrangement between the six unions might fall apart if Ireland changes its status.
The Minister challenged those assertions. He argued neither Sky nor ESPN would be excluded from bidding. “How does the ‘collective selling’ argument stand up when we know that France has listed the Six Nations and the final of the Heineken Cup (if a French team is playing) as free-to-air? How does it stand up considering the UK government’s proposed list that includes designating Welsh Six Nations [games] as ‘free-to-air’ due to the special resonance of Welsh rugby?”
Mr Ryan has argued that transferring specific sports events to pay TV channels is socially divisive and leads to the undesirable situation whereby where children are brought to pubs to watch major sporting fixtures.