The Black Hole

Rights are a perennial issue, but it seems that they remain very badly handled.

Let's take a Celtic League rugby match. If you're Welsh they're pretty much all covered by either the BBC or S4C and are probably the reason no one turns up at the grounds any more.

But, once the matches have happened we run into a rights black hole.

You might see some odd highlights on BBC or S4C, but you will never have this game available to view ever again, online, on TV or on any other medium. You will never, ever see this game again, even though the coverage exists and has been paid for.

I have no idea why there isn't an online catalogue available of this type of game, for free, or for £30 each...

Someone, somewhere, owns the secondary rights and they clearly aren't using them.

And this isn't about marginal sports - why aren't all Football League games available online by 5.01pm on a Saturday ?

There's something very strange in the sports rights market that skews it towards not making rights available..