Wales rugby: TV offers 'not enough' to air free coverage

S4C has shown Wales' fixtures in the past

Free-to-air broadcasters did not offer enough money for the rights of live coverage of Wales' autumn rugby internationals, according to the Welsh Rugby Union's boss.

Fans must now pay to watch this year's fixtures on Amazon Prime.

It will provide English and Welsh-language coverage of the matches, while S4C will broadcast highlights an hour after the final whistle.

Steve Phillips, WRU chief executive, said the arrangement was "fine".

But the deal with Amazon has prompted calls for all Wales games to be available on free-to-air terrestrial TV.

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Giving evidence to a Senedd committee on Wednesday, Mr Phillips said he understood the need of sport being accessible to all but "the flipside is professional sport does get very expensive".

"All international media rights are now sold as a collective via the Six Nations, so Wales don't do it as a standalone item.

"The way sport is going, there needs to be a mix of free-to-air and paid TV."

He told the committee the WRU was arranging a "special deal" for community rugby clubs to secure an Amazon subscription.

Wales autumn fixtures last year were shown live on both Amazon Prime and S4C.

However, this year the Welsh-language broadcaster will only be able to show highlights.

The WRU say it is working on an Amazon Prime subscription for community rugby clubs to watch the games

Giving evidence to the same committee last week, the channel's chief executive, Owen Evans, described the move as "a retrograde step".

Asked about the impact the decision could have on Welsh-language broadcasting, Mr Phillips said: "Amazon have created a Welsh language channel and the matches will be broadcast in Welsh.

"We're very passionate about the Welsh language - it's a non-negotiable for us so if people are not doing the Welsh language, we're not signing up for the deal."

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