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ITV will screen in-game commercials for the first time during Thursday’s Six Nations Championship opener between France and Ireland at Stade de France. The broadcaster’s new rights deal includes the option to air two split-screen adverts before a scrum is set in each half of every match of the Six Nations, the Guardian has learned.
ITV is understood to have agreed in-game advertising deals with two major brands, with the screen to be divided in two so viewers do not miss any commentary or live action. The commercials will fill the right half of the screen and last around 20 seconds, with live pictures continuing on the left.
Split-screen in-game advertising has been used by TV networks in the United States for several years and is being trialled by RTE in the Irish national broadcaster’s racing coverage in Ireland.
If the Six Nations experiment is a success , there is a possibility ITV could sell in-game commericals for its coverage of this summer’s World Cup, when there all matches will feature a three-minute water break in the middle of each half to help players cope with the extreme heat.
ITV is starting a new four-year deal for the Six Nations in partnership with the BBC, which gives Britain’s free-to-air commercial network 10 of the competition’s 15 matches each year, including every England game. ITV is understood to be paying more than two-thirds of the £63million-a-year deal, with advertising revenue a crucial means of recouping its spending.
It has also agreed to pay £80m-a-year for exclusive rights for every game of the Nations Championship, the new 12-team competition featuring the Six Nations and their major southern hemisphere rivals – South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Fiji and Japan – which begins this summer.
ITV has also broadcast every men’s Rugby World Cup since 1991, but has yet to conclude a deal for the 2027 tournament in Australia. The rugby investment represents a deliberate strategy by ITV to broaden its appeal to sports fans and in particular male ABC1 viewers, who are hugely attractive to advertisers.
The Six Nations is starting on a Thursday for the first time in the competition’s history due to a request from ITV to avoid a clash with the Winter Olympics, with the opening ceremony in Milan taking place on Friday, and is being broadcast and live streamed by the BBC.
In another change the championship has also been truncated from seven to six weeks weeks this year, with one of the rest weeks removed because of the need to create room in the international calendar for the Nations Cup. With just one fallow week, there will be three consecutive weeks of fixtures, followed by a week off, then two more to conclude the championship.
