Six Nations and Sanzaar agree to pool rugby broadcast and commercial rights

The Six Nations and Sanzaar unions have agreed to combine the sale of their media rights and commercial agreements under a shared revenue model, according to The Guardian. The arrangement brings together the leading European and southern hemisphere unions, extending cooperation beyond the Nations Championship to other major international rugby competitions outside the World Cup.

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Under the agreement, southern hemisphere countries will share in profits from the Six Nations and British & Irish Lions tours. European unions will, in turn, receive revenue from broadcast and sponsorship agreements linked to the Rugby Championship and the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series between New Zealand and South Africa. The structure connects income from competitions previously associated with separate groups of unions.

A new agency will oversee the sale of those rights. It is to be established by the 10-person board created to run the Nations Championship. Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney said the agency would operate beneath that competition’s 10 founding unions, with the aim of making sales more efficient and increasing the commercial value of international rugby.

The Nations Championship already provides a model for collective selling. Its commercial and media income is shared among the Six Nations unions and New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and Argentina. Fiji and Japan receive substantially smaller appearance fees, The Guardian reported. The broader agreement follows the founding members’ work on that competition and their effort to generate growth in a difficult market for media rights.

Implementation is expected to come in stages. Sponsorship and other commercial arrangements could be affected from 2028, the year of the second Nations Championship. Television rights will follow later because existing Six Nations and Sanzaar broadcast agreements run through 2029. The planned changes therefore do not mean an immediate replacement of the current television contracts.

From the 2030 rights cycle, broadcasters will be offered the opportunity to acquire the Six Nations, Rugby Championship and Nations Championship together. Tailored packages will also be available, rather than every buyer being required to take all three competitions. That approach is intended to encourage competition among bidders as the unions pursue higher revenues through a coordinated sales process.