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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
Anything that increases the games coverage has to be a good thing.
LIKE
“Everyone knows whether it’s rugby, politics or whatever, front-rowers should rule the world, so to have a hooker at the helm makes sense,” Nathan Charles Western Force & Wallabies Hooker.
Could we get Buddha Handy and Gordon Bray back doing the commentary like back in the good old days
Folks on this site have been making the point about FTA coverage of Super Rugby for years. JON dropped the ball on this on more than one occasion. I think it has been a very large obstactle to growing new supporters and one of his major misfires.
I'm pretty sure that last time TV rights were up for grabs News Ltd threatened to take a chunk of it's TV offer off of the table if the ARU tried to get a deal happening with a FTA provder.
But getting Super Rugby exposure on FTA is extremely important, well other then a highlights package shown at 11pm on a tuesday night
ANYONE AND I REPEAT A N Y O N E is better than Kearnsey and crew... Nathan and Brendan do their best to be unbiased.. IMHO!!!
I am starting to like this Pulver guy.
He has taken the game by the scruff of the neck, and is thinking of any possible ways to make it better, even if it means thinking outside the box (see his 25 min halves 2nd tier stuff).
Whilst I don't agree with all the ideas he has, I love the energy and desire this man has, it's a long needed change, and long may it continue.
Yes. But I think there would be alternatives like on one hour delay like this year's A League deal. Or even next day replays on 1HD. Just get in on FTA when casual sports watchers are awake. Better than re-runs of MASH, Becker or Cheers. Providing they leave Max & 99 alone.
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Agree with the need for decent commentators etc, but FTA television means adverts every single time there is a break in play for more than 10 seconds! I hate watching sport on FTA!!
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