This week’s Radio Times is a Six Nations special

In the latest issue, with four different covers, the England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales captains preview the annual showdown.

By Laura Rutkowski

Published: Tuesday, 31 January 2023 at 12:00 am

One Radio Times reader wrote to us this week to complain, among other things, about the BBC’s decision to cover “as much football as often as possible”. She has our sympathy. It must sometimes feel to the sports-phobic that our traditional broadcasters have a one-track mind.

But truth be told, there’s a lot less live sport on free-to-air TV these days than in the past, certainly when it comes to the men’s games, mainly because of the billions of pounds that the likes of Sky and BT (and now Amazon, too) are prepared to pay for the rights to broadcast the action. The BBC and ITV simply can’t compete.

In the 1970s and ’80s you could watch top sportsmen competing at cricket, tennis, rugby league and union, Formula One and, sometimes, football. Every Saturday afternoon – and often Sunday, too – would be devoted to hours of live sport. The biggest matches were watched by tens of millions.

Now, very little is left. The FA Cup, shared by BBC and ITV, plays out every few weeks between now and May, the tennis if it’s Wimbledon, and every now and then a Grand Prix.

One tradition that has survived on terrestrial TV is the Six Nations, rugby union’s annual championship to find the best team in the northern hemisphere. Back in the days when Bill McLaren was “the voice of rugby”, it was always on the BBC, a winter afternoon ritual as comforting as tea and crumpets. Last year, ITV and the BBC bid £460 million together to share the rights until 2025.

Which means that for the next six weeks we can watch many of the finest rugby players competing in a high-stakes drama that plays out in our sitting rooms (or on our laptops and phones), all without having to spend a pound for the pleasure.

Beyond paying the obligatory licence fee. It’s a reminder of the unifying power of sport and the universal remit of public service broadcasting. Enjoy it while you can.

""

Also in this week’s Radio Times: