Jon and Sacha Child, who have been running The Kings Arms Hotel in Abergavenny for nearly 12 years, say they are “grateful” for S4C showing Wales’ autumn Test series games.
They realised the cost of a subscription wouldn’t be “viable” for their business.
The Kings Arms initially advertised they were showing all 21 games this month, but a TNT representative contacted them to say they didn’t have a subscription.
“It wasn’t in a malicious way, it was more flagging that we didn’t have the right package,” Jon said.
“The price for a commercial package was priced a little under £700 a month plus VAT with a minimum six months contract. That was just way too much for us a business.”
Jon said the pub had lost about 40-50 customers last week for the England v New Zealand match.
“We knew they had booked specifically to watch the match here, so when we had to cancel it meant they went to competitors,” he said.
Jon added being able to show Wales’ games via S4C was a “lifeline”.
“Otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to show anything and I think that would have been even more stark for us.”
But he added feedback from customers was that they prefer having English language commentary as the majority do not speak Welsh.
