Six Nations Rugby will move from beIN Sports to NBC next year as part of a six-year rights deal expected to be announced formally later today. NBC will pay a rights fee for the annual seven-week-long tournament, though the companies would not divulge how much. The deal starts in February with televised games appearing on NBC, NBCSN and CNBC. NBC Sports Gold will stream all Six Nations matches live. “We’ve been working on this deal for close to a year,” said NBC Sports and NBCSN President of Programming Jon Miller. “This is one that we’ve wanted for a long time.”
NBC execs said Six Nations Championship games will fit into weekend morning windows that became available when F1 left for ESPN, a deal that was announced on Wednesday. NBC also will use EPL games and NASCAR programming for those time slots. Many of the EPL games will move from CNBC to NBCSN. The schedule will have NBC carry the England-Ireland rugby match on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17. The TV schedule will be somewhat abbreviated next year as NBC covers the PyeongChang Games, but it will ramp up again in '19.
NBC Sports Group will use its own talent and produce studio shows and shoulder programming around the matches, including a “Men In Blazers” Six Nations-focused show. “We want to demonstrate how big the sport is over there,” Miller said. NBC also holds rights the Rugby World Cup through '23, Premiership Rugby and Olympic rugby through '32.
