{"id":411352,"date":"2026-02-06T15:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T15:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/411352\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T15:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T15:49:08","slug":"in-game-adverts-six-nations-fans-criticise-the-use-of-commercials-around-scrums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/411352\/","title":{"rendered":"In-game adverts: Six Nations fans criticise the use of commercials around scrums"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a knock-on by Cian Prendergast that cleared the way for a bit of broadcasting history.<\/p>\n

After the Ireland flanker’s fluffed attempt to gather a loose ball in the 17th minute of his team’s defeat by France,<\/a> ITV’s shot switched to a wide, high angle of the Stade de France, the screen split and the audio feed from the commentary gantry was replaced by a soundtrack of orchestral strings.<\/p>\n

While the two forward packs prepared for a scrum on one side of the screen, an advert for a Samsung mobile phone, based around a group of friends watching an (advert-free) rugby match, played on the other.<\/p>\n

It lasted 20 seconds. By the time it was finished, the set-piece hadn’t started. Referee Karl Dickson was still calling the two front rows together.<\/p>\n

However, a boundary had been crossed. <\/p>\n

While adverts have long bracketed sporting action on commercial television in the United Kingdom, it was the first time they had made a mid-match incursion into the viewing experience.<\/p>\n

It is common practice in the United States, with the stop-start nature of American football, for example, giving the chance for broadcasters to create “sponsored moments”, as well as play in-vision adverts.<\/p>\n

The reaction from some viewers on social media was, perhaps predictably, not positive.<\/p>\n

The use of in-game adverts, which was repeated in the second half with a spot for airline Virgin Atlantic, was criticised as intrusive, disruptive to the flow of the game, and “American”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a knock-on by Cian Prendergast that cleared the way for a bit of broadcasting history. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-411352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}