Free-to-air plan would 'devastate' rugby

Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan’s plans to designate key rugby matches as free-for-air for television would devastate the sport for generations to come, the Irish Rugby Football Union has said.

The proposal would cost the IRFU up to €12 million a year and put an end to the sport's mass appeal, IRFU chief executive Philip Browne told the Joint Oireachtas committee on arts and sport today.

Mr Browne also predicted that the game's leading players would move abroad and the number of professional teams in Ireland would decline if the plan were implemented.

His stance won broad support from members of the committee, with the exception of Green party Senator Dan Boyle who commented that the IRFU knew "the price of everything and the value of nothing".

The IRFU earns €11 million a year from the common pot of revenue generated by televising the Six Nations tournament, and €5 million from the Heineken Cup, a total of €11 million more than the actual value of Irish television rights, according to new figures presented to the committee by Mr Browne.

"The fact is that we receive significantly more from the commercial element of the partnership, including television money, than we as a market generate," he said.

He likened the relationship between Ireland and the bigger rugby-playing nations to that which existed between this county and the EU when we were a big beneficiary of funds from the Union.

Mr Browne said Ireland's set-up, with most leading players based at home, was the envy of the rugby world and the foundation of our success in the game. "For us in Irish rugby it is unthinkable that it should be put at risk."

He described the free to air proposal as "utopia" and pleaded for a "balanced" approach that would allow the IRFU to maximise its television revenues by allowing market forces to prevail.

He was supported in his arguments by the chiefs of Six Nations Ltd and European Rugby Cup Ltd, two companies based in Dublin which run the Six Nations and Heineken Cup tournaments, respectively.