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THE Australian Rugby Union is looking to land a lucrative broadcasting rights deal with a free-to-air television network to increase revenues and raise the profile of the sport.
Sources said ARU chief executive Bill Pulver had met key stakeholders, including major sponsor Qantas and broadcasters.
Mr Pulver articulated a new vision for the sport as part of a pitch to attract interest from the FTA networks.
It's understood Mr Pulver's strategy includes a presence on a free-to-air network for the Super 15 rugby union competition, which is aired on pay-TV platform Foxtel.
Super rugby has a broadcast rights deal with sports program provider Fox Sports, but Mr Pulver is said to be frustrated by Foxtel's low penetration and is keen to expand the competition's reach via free-to-air television.
Rugby union has been hamstrung by a lacklustre presence on free TV ever since it left the Seven Network in 2010.
A spokesman for the ARU declined to comment.
Former Waratah and Wallabies captain Nick Farr-Jones said recent record billion-dollar deals for the National Rugby League and Australian Football League with networks Nine and Seven, respectively, had opened up a massive gap in funding for rugby union.
"Rugby is a mile behind some of our competitors when it comes to the revenue coming in from television rights," Mr Farr-Jones told The Australian. "It creates enormous problems in terms of the funding of the game."
Mr Pulver, who started in the role in February following the resignation of John O'Neill last October, is on a nationwide roadshow presenting his vision to commercial partners and state rugby union administrators.
"We look across the border and we see 90,000 people turning up at an AFL game and we think wouldn't that be great, so we have to think about how we energise and refresh the game," Mr Farr-Jones said.
"How do we get the old rusted-on rugby supporters to love the game again?
"They have all of a sudden become detached."
Mr Farr-Jones also sits on the board of the NSW Rugby Union and said the sport had suffered from a disconnect between grassroots rugby and professional rugby.
"We run grassroots rugby on the smell of an oily rag," Mr Farr-Jones said. "I'm not saying the game is broke, but we don't have the money that the NRL and AFL has."
Network Ten has a broadcast rights deal with the ARU to air rugby Test matches.
It attracted solid ratings for the recent British and Irish Lions rugby union tour after acquiring the rights to all Tests for an estimated $2.5 million. The deal runs down in late 2014.
Before Ten, Test matches were shown on Nine, but the second-placed free-to-air network did not run live broadcasts of Wallabies games for the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand because they clashed with other codes.
Analysts believe rugby union needs a free-to-air broadcaster to compete with more popular codes.
"Rugby union is the football code really missing out on establishing a consistent large following, and an FTA network partner to boost the profile and popularity of the game," Fusion Strategy analyst Steve Allen said.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/medi...-1226715499166
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