Despite the team’s historic performances in Argentina over the last two weeks, Scottish rugby fans could face a terrestrial television blackout when the team plays New Zealand and South Africa in November, Gordon McKie, the Scottish Rugby Union chief executive, warned yesterday. He is laying the blame firmly at the door of the BBC, who he accuses of treating Scottish rugby unfairly.
McKie is particularly angry that BBC Scotland refuses to discuss showing any rugby at all — not even an English-language highlights package from games covered by BBC Alba — while the corporation’s London decision-makers have valued coverage of Scotland’s autumn internationals at a figure significantly below the amount they were prepared to offer the Welsh union, even though Scotland are ranked higher than Wales.
The union has gained some high-profile allies in the Scottish Parliament, which is due to debate the issue next week in a motion criticising the broadcaster. It has been proposed by Sarah Boyack, whose constituency includes Murrayfield, and has already gathered the support of 20 other MSPs.
The practical effect of the television deadlock is that the SRU has not been able to secure a sponsor for its three November games, nor can it confirm kick-off times, and so cannot start selling tickets, which is hitting cash flow — the average debt, says McKie, is around £15 million but is going up slightly now because of the ticket delay.
For the first time in eight years, he will be able to tell the annual general meeting on Saturday that the organisation has traded at a profit — around £600,000 after allowing for charges, compared to breaking even last year and losing between £3 million and £8.5 million in each of the six years before that — but the television impasse is seen as a threat. If the BBC does not come forward with a suitable offer, McKie may do a deal with a satellite or pay-per-view broadcaster.
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“We feel quite sore about it,” McKie said. “We are very disappointed. We were offered a derisory sum to renew an existing contract.”