‘It will come under one umbrella, like Coca-Cola’: Inside CVC’s vision for growing rugby

The prospect of losing any part of the Six Nations from free-to-air television is an emotive subject that tends to get MPs pontificating in Parliament, but unless it is added to the list of ‘Crown Jewels’ events that have to be shown on terrestrial then there is little to stop market forces from determining the direction of travel. “The way we look at this going forward is looking at the way people consume sports content, live sports content,” a Six Nations source said. “I don’t think it is very positive for rugby because the more there is competition between sports channels the higher demand for secondary sports because you want to boost your schedule,” Godard said. As former RFU chief executive Francis Baron said in part one of our report, it is always worth remembering that private equity companies are in the business of making a profit – which should hardly be considered a bad thing in a capitalistic society – yet there is a point of pride in CVC’s investment in rugby. “We don’t regret our investment in rugby,because we are getting to the good part now, where the efforts of everyone in the game has created positive momentum – and it is about delivering strong results,” Clarry said.