Television rivals call truce for next World Cup bid

Television rivals Sky and TVNZ have shelved some recent friction and submitted a joint tender for the rights to broadcast the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

The twin channels are in a scrap for the New Zealand rights with TV3, after another contender, Prime, decided not to continue its bid for the sixth global tournament.

The tenders are for free-to-air and pay broadcast rights for the next tournament hosted by France.

Final submissions were delivered to TWI, the production arm of sports marketer IMG, in Sydney about the start of the Lions tour and a decision is expected before the end of the Tri-Nations series.

Industry sources are fascinated that Sky and TVNZ have made a joint bid because they claimed Rugby World Cup officials wanted tenders from individual television channels.

"They were adamant they did not want broadcasters teaming up, they did not want any deals done," a source told the Herald.

However it seems Sky and TVNZ have decided that their combined financial clout and reputation for rugby coverage will persuade RWC officials otherwise.

Another source said TVNZ had struggled to recoup the revenue they spent to secure the rights and broadcast the last tournament in Australia.

The state-funded broadcaster has won the RWC broadcast rights for every tournament but chose to subcontract a pay subscriber deal to Sky for the 1991 event in Britain and the 1995 event in South Africa.

Subsequently there was some acrimony between the channels and TVNZ chose to go it alone in 1999 in Britain and 2003 in Australia while Sky continued with its Sanzar broadcasts and started its Rugby Channel.

But the channels had decided to reconstitute their previous arrangement in a joint bid for the 2007 competition.

Contracts for rights to televise the 2007 tournament have already been let to South Africa and Britain as part of packages to broadcast that event and the 2003 tournament in Australia.

The MNet channel in South Africa paid US$11 million ($16 million) and ITV in Britain paid US$57 million for the rights to broadcast the 2003 and 2007 tournaments.

According to a report by URS, TVNZ paid US$10 million for the combined rights to the 1999 and 2003 events, France paid US $22 million for the 2003 RWC and Australia paid US $10 million to broadcast their own tournament.

There has been a suggestion that once RWC officials decide on their preferred New Zealand broadcaster, they will negotiate even further.

Meanwhile a meeting of Sanzar officials in South Africa this week is expected to go some way towards settling the free-to-air rights to televise the expanded Super 14 and Tri-Nations next season.

Sky will continue to be the pay subscriber while TV 3 has been its free-to-air partner since 2000.