Free-to-air rugby bid in sight

Prime is considering a bid for the right to broadcast free-to-air rugby.

Prime New Zealand chief executive Chris Taylor said the right to replay rugby would add a lot of value to the network.

"We're certainly looking at it," said Taylor, who anticipates Sky Television will make a decision over which free-to-air broadcaster gets the rights within a month.

The rugby rights are held by TV3 but owner CanWest MediaWorks has been talking down their value. In October, MediaWorks chief executive Brent Impey warned Super 14 and NPC rugby broadcasts would not be played during prime time next season if TV3 secured a renewal.

Taylor said TV3 had the last rights of refusal over the rights, so if Prime put forward a bid, MediaWorks could decide if it wanted to match it.

A successful Prime bid would see free-to-air rugby go to a channel that reaches 90 per cent of the population - with only 80 per cent tuning in.

MediaWorks marketing and communications director Roger Beaumont said his company was in ongoing discussions with Sky over free-to-air rugby. "We would be surprised to see those rights go to Prime given their restricted coverage," he said. TVNZ has also said it is interested in the rights.

But free-to-air rugby could provide an incentive for more to tune their televisions to Prime and offer Prime a new strategy after its unsuccessful attempts to woo viewers with a daily dose of Paul Holmes. In June, Taylor told the Herald the network had poached Holmes because it needed to take a breakthrough step to being a mainstream network - and with the rugby rights tied up, Holmes was the most feasible option.