No more free Wales matches on S4C

[LeningradCowboy]

Why aren't England's games included in this new agreement?

[JamesWales]

Why aren't England's games included in this new agreement?

They don't want to be I guess? Presumably Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales do?

Retrograde step in my opinion

[Eric the Half a Bee]

I think it would be safe to assume that Viaplay have made a significant bid for these rights. From my limited understanding of TV rights there are two packages up for grabs - WC/Euro qualifiers and Nations League/friendlies. Oddly, in my view, rights for the 4 home nations are awarded on a UK-wide basis, and have been since 2014 when UEFA centralised the bidding process for them.

Sky held the rights to all of Wales, Scotland and N Ireland's games, plus England's Nations League/friendlies package. ITV won the bid for all the England qualifiers. In a recent qualification campaign, Scotland vs England was available on STV but as a result of ITV having the UK-wide rights to England's qualifiers. The rest of the UK have to put up with England games on free-to-air while their country's games are on Sky.

Any broadcaster owning the rights have the right to sell those rights on, as Sky have done with S4C, who pay Sky to show the games in Wales in the medium of Welsh. Sky could, of course, provide its own commentary and not sell on the rights to a free-to-air channel. Amazon did the same last autumn for Welsh rugby internationals.

I would assume that there is significant advertising revenue to be gained when showing England internationals. Channel 4 have won the rights to show England's Nations League games and friendlies from 2024, while qualifiers will continue to be on ITV. I'm just guessing here, but I wouldn't be surprised if the bids from C4 and ITV are high enough for the FA to be happy with in order to keep games on free-to-air TV.

As for the other countries in the UK, they would be of no interest to the commercial free-to-air broadcasters. Nether BBC Wales nor S4C could afford the rights to Wales' games given what the subscribers would be prepared to pay for them, figures substantially lower than the FA would get for England's rights. Would the FAW lose a few million a year just for Welsh games to be on FTA? Of course they wouldn't. Sadly, we can also moan about 6 nations games being on FTA, but they're of far more interest to commercial broadcasters than Welsh football internationals.

What may be interesting is that Viaplay will be able to sell on the rights to our games.