ESPN scores Six Nations TV rights for Australia 03/11/2009 |
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Subscription TV sports channel ESPN has acquired the rights to screen Europe's major rugby tournament, the RBS Six Nations Cup Rugby, for Australia from 2010 to 2013.
ESPN vice-president and general manager Asia-Pacific Michael Morrison said the acquisition was set to capitalise on a sport that was "incredibly popular" in Australia and would add to the channel's breadth.
While the Wallabies have floundered in recent months, and with them rugby ratings, the hardcore rugby audience appreciates the guaranteed intensity and variety of the Six Nations, which features the northern hemisphere's best teams, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It is a particularly aggressive acquisition in the Australian market given the southern hemisphere's Tri-Nations tournament is locked up by Fox Sports.
It also boosts the line-up on the ESPN HD channel, which among connoisseurs has been high-definition's best advertisement on subscription TV, and furthers ESPN as a local brand despite its weight of US programming.
"We don't see ourselves as an American sports channel," Morrison said. "In each market we're in we really cater to the market and try to be as local as we can or at least present sports in a local style."
To that end, former VFL player and Pardon the Interruption host Sam Kekovich will become the face of ESPN from December.
Morrison said it could presage further investment in rights for sports favoured in the parochial Australian market.
"We'll see what happens," he said. 'We're concentrating on a lot of top international sports and this should perform, because we think it's a top, if not the top, international tournament and it hasn't been live in HD before and it's the first time we've carried it.
"Our focus has been on international sports but we look at any rights from time to time and if it makes sense to pursue it, we will," he said. "In the Australian market we've been very satisfied having a very strong international line-up that includes the Spanish La Liga and UEFA Champions League (soccer) and our US sports."
Nevertheless, ESPN is assessing the implications of the Australian government's review of broadcast rights, "Sport on television: a review of the anti-siphoning scheme in the contemporary digital environment".
"It's something we're looking at and reviewing internally," he said. "Certain markets have different restrictions and there are some markets where it's a big issue and others where it's not. I'm not the last word but I don't believe in the US (restricting events to free-to-air coverage) is a concern."
ESPN is also making waves as a digital news source in the US. In Australia, its cricket site, cricinfo .com, has become a major site and Morrison expects ESPN's scrum .com to enjoy strong growth during the Six Nations.
"Our mission is to really serve sports fans through whatever technology we can and with whatever sports they want to access," he said.
(Source: theaustralian.news.com.au)
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