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International limit on rugby
- Bret Harris
- From: The Australian
- April 23, 2010 12:00AM
THE ARU's new multi-million-dollar broadcast deal reflects both the "benefit and burden" of Australian teams playing in an international competition.
A package of broadcast agreements involving the Australian, New Zealand and South African national unions delivers a 35 per cent increase (although only 30 per cent for Australia) -- $US323m ($A347m) to $US437m -- to the SANZAR partners over the next five years.
While the Nine Network has emerged as the new free-to-air broadcaster for Wallabies Tests, the expanded Super 15 competition will be shown exclusively on Fox Sports, which virtually created the competition after the code went professional in 1995.
There is a feeling in Australian rugby that to grow the game Super rugby must secure free-to-air TV coverage. But ARU chief executive John O'Neill admitted rugby lacked the "critical mass" to secure free-to-air coverage for Super rugby at the moment.
While the number of Super rugby games -- and local derbies -- will increase considerably next year with the addition of the Melbourne Rebels in the newly created Australian conference, a third of the competition will still be played in South Africa, whose unfriendly time-zone for Australian viewers makes it hard to sell to local broadcasters.
"We are up to 125 games, but a reasonable chunk of those . . . about 30 per cent . . . are in South Africa and they don't rate," O'Neill said. "Games coming in between one and four o'clock in the morning, diehards of about 10,000 people watch those games."
"The big bonus for us is the increased local content and local derbies, but we still have all the away games in South Africa. There's not much value ascribed to those by broadcasters. It's the benefit and the burden of being an international competition."
The ARU tried to secure one Super rugby game a week on free-to-air TV, but Fox Sports threatened to reduced its financial offer by 30 to 40 per cent. In the end the ARU managed to gain a one-hour weekly highlights package of Super 15 on Nine.
"When we worked out what Fox Sports' offer was going to come down by we would not have been able to survive financially," O'Neill said.
"Our `staying alive' philosophy at the moment is . . . we've got Queensland Rugby Union under management . . . no one is in great financial health. If we had pushed for one live Super rugby game on free to air, it would have been value destructive. The highlights package is good. It's a better outcome than where we presently stand."
O'Neill said the new broadcast deal meant rugby was in a better position to compete with AFL and NRL.
"We compete now, but we've now got better armoury," O'Neill said. "We've only got five teams across Australia, but we've got the international flavour.
"There's five teams in New Zealand and there's five teams in South Africa. When you look at the NRL, AFL, A-League, they have their particular strengths and weaknesses. We look at our game for what it is.
"You've got the best rugby players in the world competing in the best rugby competition in the world. We have to play to our strengths and taking a team to Melbourne next year is the icing on the cake.
"The Rebels will be the only team in Melbourne competing in a truly international competition
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225857165354
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Originally Posted by travelling_gerry
Especially in Durban!
