Rugby Australia has approached Fox Sports to talk about televising Sydney and Brisbane GPS rugby matches, it has been reported.
The issue was discussed at the Rugby Australia board meeting in Sydney on Monday as a possible way to increase the game’s exposure.
Fox Sports head of television Steve Crawley told The Australian that the broadcaster’s chief executive Peter Campbell is working well with Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle and there was “a lot of useful dialogue happening”.
““(Super) Rugby made a really good start for us on the weekend. The Tahs recorded good numbers (for their game against the Hurricanes) so it’s all positive. Still, it is a long way off,” Crawley told the newspaper.
A new broadcast deal is due in 2021 and Castle said Rugby Australia is eager to look at ways to increase promotion of the code.
“Given we are in a process looking at future broadcasting arrangements, we are keen to explore any opportunities to expand the promotion of the game across all levels as well as commercial opportunities,” she told The Australian.
“We know that there is a huge appetite for rugby content and we will look at any way to expand our footprint.”
josh
Guest
Well done lol The one thing that stops Rugby from becoming more widely accepted and they're going to expose more of it. Call it the FOX Silver Spoon Cup.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
If RA aren’t paying anything. Great. A little bit more exposure. If they are, not a good use of limited funds.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Thinking about it. They should look at some kind of Cup competition involving all of the repsective private school competitions in Queensland, NSW and the ACT as well as including teams from the fledgingly Shute Shield U18s competition (and a similar QLD competition). Run it on a state level first and then a national tournament. Similar could be done for Vic and WA.
Rugby Geek
Roar Rookie
I read this on the wire. I seem to recall that this has been raised before. Riverview and Joey's were keen but other schools were not so keen. So unless you have AAGPS (NSW) agreeing there would be no deal. Since these schools are private it would be reasonable to expect they would need to be paid as well. Somehow I feel this is a real thought bubble and has a lot more thought has to go into it. Better still, why would you bundle this into fox? If I was in the RA, I would be begging it to go free to air! Surely that would be a goal! Shute Shield has been a boom so why not reward those guys? But what about the ISA, CSA and public schools. Perhaps its a school knock out competition that needs to organised. NSW and QLD GPS would be a great start but who would leave out Waverly, Knox, St Augustine's just to name a few.
DNZ
Guest
Would be a great idea but I can see it getting very political. Look at the removal of ACT schools from the Waratah Shield in 2004 because of their domination of it. It would be difficult to bring all the parties together in an equitable structure I suspect.
Harold
Guest
The only fear from some of these staid schools is that the boys will become even more of an elite and "rockstars" and take away from their studies.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
I've always kind of wondered why this hasn't happened any sooner than now. Hopefully if this is to occur they bring in some kind of national Schools Cup as well.