by Instead of patrolling the side of the pitch with a microphone in hand, Martin Bayfield has enjoyed this year’s Guinness Six Nations Championship for the first time in decades as a punter, not a broadcaster.
The former lock forward with England and the British and Irish Lions has been a regular and impressive presence on our screens since joining ITV’s rugby team for their coverage of the 2007 World Cup.
Having also worked with the BBC and, since 2013, in the pay-TV world – first as a presenter and reporter with BT Sport and now TNT Sports for their coverage of Premier League and Champions Cup rugby – Bayfield’s judgment benefit from their legs in many. camps.
His comments therefore provide a fresh perspective on the debate over the future of broadcasting the championship, which reopened when BBC director of sport Barbara Slater admitted last November that the BBC might not be able to continue facing the Six Nations broadcasting rights. , which he currently shares with ITV in a deal that runs until next year.
Bayfield, who won 31 caps for England and three for the Lions on the tour of New Zealand in 1993, is unequivocal. He believes the Six Nations should remain on terrestrial television but their coverage needs a seismic overhaul.
And rather than continuing to be split between BBC and ITV, Bayfield believes viewers would be better served with the championship coming under one roof, allowing the broadcaster to build a consistent story across the seven weeks.
“Rugby can’t hide and jump out from behind a tree and say, ‘Here we go!’ and then they disappear again. He needs oxygen or he’s going to fail,” Bayfield said.
“The Six Nations has to be free to air and it has to be one platform so you have one focus, one message, one tone. I don’t know if I’m too old fashioned, but I want to be able to hear the theme tune and think, ‘That’s the Six Nations’ and walk in from the other room to watch it, a bit like when Special Rugby Game music started, and everyone sat down and watched it.
“I know people look at things differently and I know the ‘meet to watch’ is almost gone, but live sport is one of the only things left that people sit down together and watch alive.
“I work as a freelancer, so I don’t have a drum to hit ITV. It doesn’t bother me either. My opinions are not based on who I want to work for, but what is in the best interest of the game. If the game is strong, the rest of us benefit.
“You have to have a good build-up but more importantly good analysis afterwards, and access to the game during the week. Every Six Nations game should be like a mini Super Bowl. You have press conferences, you have interviews with players, and superstars who enjoy rugby.
“We also need to embrace new media to capture all age groups because that’s what rugby is all about. Right now the only people who seem to be doing it are the podcasters. They have access to these people, why aren’t the TV companies doing that?”
Watching Ireland’s win over Wales on ITV and Scotland’s Calcutta Cup win on the BBC last Saturday showed Bayfield’s frustration at the lack of alignment in coverage.
“It had nothing to do with the pundits or the presenters but in the run-up to the Calcutta Cup match, the BBC did an hour without a break leading up to the match, which was brilliant,” he said.
“Ugh [Monye]Sam [Warburton] and John Barclay was exceptional in the build-up and the post-match analysis was some of the best you’ll ever see. In comparison, the Ireland v Wales match on ITV – Drico had very good views [Brian O’Driscoll]Jamie Roberts and Rory Best.
“But they were watching it in three or four minute chunks and then there was an ad. Then another three or four minute chunk and another announcement. So the quality is uneven because of the time you can spend on it. That’s what really hit me there and that’s what people want.
“Of course, if you go behind the paywall, you can always give it the Netflix treatment as theirs Drive to Live series on F1, or they could devote a whole channel to it. If it was on Sky Sports, they’d probably have the Six Nations channel for the whole seven weeks.
“There are pros and cons, but ultimately you want to have as many eyes as possible and of course that only comes from terrestrial TV, which can deliver millions rather than hundreds of thousands.
“But if he stays on terrestrial TV, they have to give him the full works, not just a brief assembly and then five minutes after the game before they say they’ve gone to the Ant and Dec show. It must be noted that there would be a continuous narrative all the way through so it would be much better to have it on one channel.”
Another Bayfield measure is the in-house TV mantra of being a ‘broadcaster’, not a ‘lean broadcaster’, when it comes to rugby coverage. Rather than dumbing down the content and analysis to appeal to a wider audience, he believes the game should instead play up its complexities.
“I often hear this phrase, ‘Oh, we have to broadcast to the lowest common denominator,'” he said. “We have to accept that people watching rugby don’t know.
“I would put that on his head. I still remember watching Rhona Martin throw the ‘stone of destiny’ to win a gold medal in the curling final of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002. I knew nothing about curling. No one was either. But by the time we went to work the next morning, a little hazy from staying up to watch it, we were all experts.
“What we need is people going to work talking about Thomas Ramos’ kicking style and how he likes to have the valve on the ball pointing out of his boot. We need to get the best analysts there, not just the big names but people who can get the message across and people who can sell the game.
“It’s not just about the 80 minutes on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. We need coverage throughout the week, previewing and reviewing games.
“We have to find ways to make people aware of the greatness of the Six Nations. It is the competition that every other rugby playing country wants to be a part of.
“The Rugby Championship in the southern hemisphere would love to be like the Six Nations, but it never will be. Let’s make the Six Nations great. It has to be on one channel and on a properly structured calendar, where every game is given its importance.
“We have to make people fall in love with our game and to do that we have to have fun too.”
