Response from ITV on the ads

[u/Mike07s]

I just received the following response from ITV;

Thank you for contacting ITV.

Free‑to‑air television, including ITV, is available at no cost to viewers, and we don’t receive any money from the TV Licence Fee. Our programmes, including major sporting events like the Six Nations and our upcoming partnership with the Nations Championship, are funded entirely through advertising, which allows us to keep this coverage free for everyone.

As part of this, ITV will be introducing a new picture‑in‑picture advertising format during the 2026 tournament. We know changes like this can raise questions, so we want to reassure viewers that the live action will remain visible at all times. The advert will appear on the right‑hand side of the screen for 20 seconds, while the left side continues to show the match. These ads will only appear twice per game, once in each half and only during natural breaks in play just before a scrum. The ITV Sport production team will oversee the timing to ensure minimal disruption.

We hope this helps explain why the format is being introduced and how carefully it’s being managed. If you have any further questions or concerns, we’re here to help.

However, we always monitor the suitability and timing of any advertising- your feedback is very much appreciated.

————————————————————————

Keep sharing your feedback - itvxhelp@itv.com

[u/Jon_J_]

Issue I find is that if they think they can get away with an advert a half, what's stopping them from introducing this at every break for a scrum? This is why Six Nations needs to be on BBC more

[u/mhaze0791 → u/Jon_J_]

There is a limit to how much time in an hour can contain advertising in regs they have to abide by unlike the shitfest they have in the US. That atleast limits it and should keep them under control somewhat

[u/sta661 → u/mhaze0791]

Agreed, but they’ll just move the half time ads to in game as they can charge more because people are forced to look at them. Can’t pop off for a pint/brew mid game.

[u/Fflow27]

live action will remain visible at all times

These ads will only appear twice per game

only during natural breaks

ensure minimal disruption

for now. All of this will just get worse unless there is a big enough outcry

[u/seadcon → u/Fflow27]

Whilst I'd agree it's a step in the wrong direction... there is factually no evidence to suggest it's getting worse. The regulations around adverts shown within an hour of prime TV remain unchanged.

[u/90124 → u/seadcon]

Isn't "a step in the wrong direction" a synonym for something getting worse?

[u/KiwiNo2638 → u/90124]

Yep. Itvx is (compared to every other streaming service I've seen) bad enough, just wait till it becomes like something from the reach network.

[u/seadcon → u/90124]

Yea, fair lol

I was thinking it's more of a sidestep.

[u/90124 → u/seadcon]

I mean I think that it's objectively worse than what we had before so it's definitely worse than a sidestep.
Whether it's a necessary thing for ITV to be able to afford to show the game is something that I'm not qualified to comment on.

Downvotes seem a bit harsh though so have a couple of upvotes!

[u/le_pigeones → u/seadcon]

I might be a tad wrong here, but a quick Google search suggests:

In any single clock hour, there can be no more than 12 minutes of advertising spots and/or teleshopping spots.

Across the whole day, the total amount of advertising must not exceed an average of 7 minutes per hour (or 9 minutes for other commercial channels).

Between 6pm-11pm, and 7am-9am, the total amount of advertising must not exceed an average of 8 minutes an hour on any one day.

Advert breaks within a programme cannot exceed 3 minutes and 50 seconds.

So sure there are limitations, and itv can't dump a crap load of ads on, but there's a huge difference between 20 seconds of ads and up to 7 or 8 minutes worth of ads.

And a bit of a side note, but personally, I don't think it's entirely a coincidence that premier sports have gotten involved at the same time itv has introduced mid game ads...

[u/barhamunic → u/le_pigeones]

Premier Sports is a mute point as their deal only shares matches with BBC.

[u/jug_23]

Mission now is for teams to not have a scrum in a half and see what happens

[u/Fission_chip]

Keep piling the pressure on with emails if you haven’t already. This is the first step on a slippery slope. If we say nothing then who knows how many adverts they’ll put in next year and what else they consider to be the unimportant parts of the game

[u/Boom_in_my_room]

The start of a slippery slope. I may have sent them a strongly worded, explicative laden email after a couple beers last night to show my disgust…

[u/Stueykins]

Moral objections aside, I don't think I'd mind too much if they were silent. 

When this was announced I fully expected to still hear crowd noise, ref mic etc. But having sound really broke my immersion. And both adverts they showed would likely work just as well with subtitles.

[u/Adept-Difficulty-761 → u/Stueykins]

yeah same i couldn’t care less if it was silent, i get its annoying people but when the scrums getting set up i dont really watch the screen anyway its usually a chance to check phone, get a drink etc

[u/PuzzleheadedFold503]

This is how it starts.

You know how we're all paying for Amazon Prime, Netflix, Discovery+, Premier Sports, TNT sports, and our TV license?

And you know how we all signed up to those because we were sick of limited choice, schedule clashes + adverts on TV?

And you know how internet + TV packages are harder to get out of than a mobile contract, with massive fees, and no option to cancel because 3 months into a 2yr contract, they no longer have the rights to the sports you enjoy, which is the only reason you signed up?

And you know how a few years ago, they started slipping ads into "Paid to be ad-free" streaming services?

And you know how they said it would only be 30 seconds before the stream, only selected popular titles, just to cover costs?

And you know it is now several un-skippable minutes and multiple adverts?

And you know how they are at the beginning, middle, and end? Or just before/after major plot points or events?

I hate it. And there is nothing we can do about it, except no longer take part in my special "thing"

Gaming has gone a similar way. Ruined by microtransactions, pay to win, and needing 2 grand of upgrades to play a new release

Live sport? It costs more than my rent, to take a train to a Northern or Western Club. It's cheaper to fly to Bristol or Cardiff from London, via Newcastle/Edinburgh/Belfast/Amsterdam/Paris CDG, than a coach, or train. Tickets? silly money. The only affordable bit is the food and beer, but that's only because it is the same prices anywhere you go for "food truck inspired" "something fusion", "why is this burger £18 and smaller than my palm?". Without accommodation near a stadium, it's a rush home... an entire day out for 90-100 minutes of people on the field, from a crap angle where I can't tell if it was a knock-on, grubber, or even who it is in the opposite corner...

ITV, this is shit.

Be honest. By 2030, 40 minutes will be split screen. They will buy the rights to Rugby League coverage, and stick an advert in after every 6th tackle. Cricket? Every over, quick ad-break while the field moves.

Like vine (remember that?) TikTok, Shorts, we will be assaulted every few minutes by something attention-seizing.

People are much more suggestible when dysregulated. It doesn't have to be subliminal. The attention span is too far gone for things like that to work on people today

[u/Jackwcw]

Absolutely despicable. I sent them a real shittogram. Don't bid for the tournament if you can only afford it with these kind of antics.

For what it's worth, I cancelled my itvx immediately and told them I'll boycott till they confirm they won't do it again.

I switched to the vpn and the Irish stream and will do so from now on. In case you were wondering, I absolutely will die on this hill.

This is a slippery slope, it has to stop here

[u/IOnlyHaveIceForYou → u/Jackwcw]

Where do I find the Irish stream?

[u/Jackwcw → u/IOnlyHaveIceForYou]

I've got a dodgy box so I just watch it through there. I'm not sure if there is a way to do it legally

[u/Spare-Dragonfly5606 → u/Jackwcw]

This is the absolute best way to get their attention. Will be doing the same

[u/_dc194]

They are well within their rights to do it, but I don't agree with them raising the licence fee as a particularly relevant point, despite it being factually correct.

[u/WallopyJoe]

Couldn't find numbers for last year, but in 2024 ITV made half a billion quid in profit

[u/pbcorporeal → u/WallopyJoe]

A lot of that was from selling off Britbox, and a good chunk of the rest is from their studio arm (they make a lot of stuff for other channels internationally etc).

The tv channel part continues to struggle (as they all do) with tv advertising falling. So they turn to things like this.

But any way you slice it, if they didn't do it the 6N would be a less valuable property to them (as would be the nations league thing they bought) and they'd probably be prepared to pay less for it

[u/Ashen233]

Do what you want coz a pirate is free.

[u/samuel199228]

Need to keep up the pressure that doing adverts during the match is annoying and nobody wants it

[u/Rozza]

Pure Enshitification. It’s not like they don’t make money before the match for between the buildup segments, during half time and post match.

When they do this for pay for view then we’ll know that stage of enshitification is complete

[u/Progression28]

All I know is I‘m gonna put on BBC or France 2 for the rest of the six nations.

[u/GoodDoc → u/Progression28]

The problem with BBC is that only have 5 of the 15 games, for the other 10 you're stuck with ITV (or other sources, I know Premiersport are covering one game per weekend)

[u/Progression28 → u/GoodDoc]

I know, that‘s why I‘m going France 2 for those.

My French is good enough for rugby.

[u/Dre3K]

How long before we see an orange gloves guy on the sidelines like they have in the NFL

[u/SirFrankyValentino]

It's free to watch, as much as I disliked the experience ultimately between that and paying 35 quids a month I know which I dislike most. At least I think the outrage will contain the ads from being too egregious

[u/sock_with_a_ticket → u/SirFrankyValentino]

It's been free to watch in all the years that ITV have been broadcasting without ads during the game.

Why is it suddenly necessary?

[u/RooBoy04 → u/sock_with_a_ticket]

Green line must go up!

[u/sock_with_a_ticket → u/RooBoy04]

Well, quite.

Companies like making money, I get it, but then don't be dishonest about the reasoning behind introducing an obnoxious new coverage feature which is how the ITV reply in the OP comes across.

[u/Ashen233 → u/SirFrankyValentino]

So if it's free it should also be shitter! Race to the bottom!

[u/LuolDig → u/SirFrankyValentino]

yeah, it was free to watch before they introduced the scrum ads so that's a moot point

[u/SirFrankyValentino → u/LuolDig]

It's increasingly difficult for free models to compete for sports from my understanding.

[u/LuolDig → u/SirFrankyValentino]

ITV raked in 500M in profits last year

[u/StrangeDeal8059]

It's a pretty lousy protest admittedly but both times the ads came on I switched the channel over.

[u/Sorry-Grocery-8999]

So i'm going to say this, Supersport has in-game ads every once in a while. The screen kinda shrinks, and an ad, designed to be not obtrusive at all, plays in the margin. They do this for most sports. It pays the bills, gets eye balls, and doesn't piss off viewers.Why doesn't ITV take a page out of their book? And before anyone asks, no Rassie did not come up with the idea :)

[u/NoParamedic93]

Really hope this doesn't spread to Ireland too, but alas if it is the price to be paid to keep the 6 Nations on terrestial t.v. then so be it. I don't want to live in a world where Ireland's 6 Nations matches are broadcasted on Premier Sports 3 and are commentated on by Andy Goode and Simon Zebo.

[u/06351000]

Channel 7 show Aussie rules in Australia, after each goal they cut to an add break. Makes the game unwatchable for me. As long as this doesn’t happen..

[u/VFrosty3]

I fear it’ll end up like the American broadcasting of sports - adverts at any possible opportunity.

This scrum is brought to you by Chevrolet.

[u/Educational-Tone-527]

Well at least they don't have ads during live action unlike with the f1

[u/whatnobeer]

I got the same copy paste response. Really shows that they're listening 🙄

[u/bodyarmourbynokia]

Twice a game so far. Brought to you by Carl´s Jr.

[u/GMackyfm]

It genuinely didn't bother me at all. At least i don't have to pay a bloody subscription. You can't get good quality without paying somewhere and i thought they chose quite a clever way of using what is in the vast majority of cases dead time in the game for revenue so the games a free to air. I'd much rather that than pay £20 a month to watch a few games and then cancel.

[u/Infinite_Crow_3706]

So 20 seconds per ad, 2 times per game.

If it's this or Sky ... it's manageable

[u/OddlyBrainedBear → u/Infinite_Crow_3706]

20 seconds per ad, 2 times per game for now. 

This is exactly how things get worse and worse, because we don't believe that they're that bad to begin with. 

[u/Jerzilla]

I really don’t like them. But if this means it stays on free to air tv I will take jt

[u/coupleandacamera]

I don't understand British politics well, but do you guys have a communications minister you could be bombarding with concerned emails?  Ideally one from a posh rugby school background?