The Irish Rugby Football Union "will deliver an unequivocal message" to Minister for Communications Alex White when both parties meet in the coming weeks: to list Six Nations matches, as White recently stated is being "strongly" considered, thereby making live coverage exclusive to terrestrial TV, would lead to the financial ruin of Irish rugby, according to Gavin Cummiskey of the IRISH TIMES. IRFU CEO Philip Browne said, "We just need to be collectively very careful that we don’t destroy what we have." Irish rugby earned approximately €20M ($21M) from the 2015 Six Nations, €4M ($4.3M) in prize money for retaining its title and "the rest from TV rights." The current media deal ends after '17 with Six Nations CEO John Feehan recently revealing its "intention to include a satellite television option from 2018." At present in Ireland the Six Nations "is a B event which means deferred coverage must be available for terrestrial TV." The IRFU is "keen to maintain this status quo." Browne: "We’re free to air until the end of this contract that we’re in with BBC. The fundamental issue I suppose is making sure that everyone understands the consequences of the government potentially interfering in the marketplace. ... We have two vast neighbors in France and England where the monies are significant and anything that damages our ability to compete in terms of revenues is going to have a significant impact on us" (IRISH TIMES, 4/16).
