STATEMENT BY N.Z. UNION

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27988, 7 June 1956, Page 12

STATEMENT BY N.Z. UNION

INCREASE IN FEES SOUGHT (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. June 6. “It would appear that the Broadcasting Service wants to take the oream off the South African tour- without paying ‘the New Zealand Rugby Union anything extra,” said the chairman of the executive committee of the union (Mr C. S. Hogg) in reply to Mi Abie’s statement tonight. The New Zealand union, he said, had granted the same facilities to the Broadcasting Service for the matches against South Africa for the same amount of coverage as the Broadcasting Service had been prepared to provide in latter years. If the Broadcasting Service wanted an increase in coverage, the union would be prepared to consider it on the basis of an increased fee, but tne increased coverage would have to have some relation to the loss of revenue that would be suffered by other Rugby unions throughout New Zealand, considering the effect the broadcasting would have on their attendances, said Mr Hogg. The union had approached the Broadcasting Service for a wider coverage on the basis of an increase in fees, but had met with limited success in the last two years. A small increase had been received, said Mr Hogg, but, as the Government knew, this had been entirely devoted to developing school football.