When it comes to television rights, Australian rugby has long been somewhere between the devil and the deep blue sea. To grow and compete, it needs to be on free-to-air television, always the oxygen for any sporting flame. But to pay its bills in the professional era it needs the money that only comes from paid television. The way forward for many and many a'moon has been to leave Super Rugby on pay TV, while ensuring that the Tests, at least, are on free-to-air as well – usually parking it wherever they can find
Gordon Bray. But this Spring tour, as many of my email correspondents have informed me, with some angst, the two most popular Tests – against England and France – will be on ... neither.
That's right. As it stands, well into the 21st Century, at a time we take it as a given that if you have pay TV, at least, you can watch pretty much anything any time, somehow negotiations have broken down to the point that, as it stands, the Test against France in a fortnight will be the first Wallaby Test since the one against Fiji in 1984 – back when dinosaurs roamed the earth – not to be on free-to-air. How did this happen? In part, it is because rugby has been so on the nose of late that none of the free-to-air networks put a bid in to broadcast the spring tour. And while the Foxsports rival beIN Sports – who used to be Al Jazeera Sports – outbid them for the pay TV rights, at the moment they're not bothering to put those two Tests to air! Who's to blame? It is tempting to say Australian Rugby, but closer to the mark is Australian rugby. The real problem is that not enough of us are watching the Tests put to air, at the end of this singularly ordinary season, for the broadcasters to bid up big. These are grim times, and the solution is not obvious. But it going to have to start with the Wallabies winning more frequently, and in more spectacular fashion!
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp...161103-gshvem.html?client=ms-android-optus-au
Having a whinge about union now