SPRINGBOK TOUR BROADCASTS

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27992, 12 June 1956, Page 12

SPRINGBOK TOUR BROADCASTS

Agreement Expected In Talks Today

N.Z. UNION SEEKS BIGGER FEE

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. June 11.

“In the past we have not been able to get the Broadcasting Service to appreciate the great interest New Zealanders take in broadcasts of sports events,” says a statement issued tonight by the chairman of the executive committee of the New Zealand Rugby Union (Mr C. S. Hogg), on the controversy over the broadcasting of Springbok matches. The union is to have discussions tomorrow with the Minister in charge of Broadcasting (Mr R. M. Algie), and it is believed that an agreement will be reached.

“Even though we pointed out the particular interest there would be in the Springbok matches, the best offer made to us for the privilege of broadcasting all Rugby games was a figure which works out about £7 a match,” the statement continues. “Our view is that if a match has no more listening interest than is represented by £7. it is not worth broadcasting. “However, sooner than deprive the New Zealand listening public of their Saturday afternoon’s football, we accepted this offer. Also, we gave the Broadcasting Service the privilege of rebroadcasting the most important of the Springbok matches —the four tests, the New Zealand Maori match, and the game against New Zealand University—although we knew that this would mean that on each test day unions throughout New Zealand would lose in revenue more than the total broadcasting grant for the whole season.

“These facts will show listeners what value the service places on the public’s interest in sports broadcasts,” Mr Hogg said. “Why, then, should the service seek to vary the contract entered into with the New Zealand union? It would appear that the service now appreciates the great number of its listeners who are ready to demand their Saturday afternoon broadcast.

“Last Saturday we allowed a delayed rebroadcast of the Waikato game. We are willing to do the same on other similar occasions this year, provided that the department shows that it does not want something for nothing. We maintain that the present fee of about £7 a game is totally inadequate, and we hope to negotiate with the service to obtain some improvement in this figure.

“It may not be generally known that I the New Zealand Rugby Union itself does not profit from the broadcasting grant. All of it goes to the unions to encourage healthy recreation among schoolboys, a cause which the Government has very much at heart.. We wonder how many of our critics who have anything to sell would do the same as we are doing, and accept such a small fraction of its value.”