Click photo to enlarge
Prime Minister John Key. Photo by NZPA.
The International Rugby Board (IRB) and broadcasters are
comfortable with an agreement on local television coverage of
the 2011 Rugby World Cup about to be signed, Prime Minister
John Key says.
Yesterday Mr Key revealed the deal was likely to be signed
this week and this morning added it was not materially
different to the proposal previously publicised.
"The verbal assurances I had was everyone was comfortable
from the IRB to the individual media outlets," he told
reporters.
Mr Key leaves tomorrow for the Commonwealth Heads of
Government meeting in Trinidad and Tobago.
He expected the agreement to be signed in the next day or so.
Maori Television, TVNZ and TV3 put in a joint bid, backed by
the Government, to cover all the World Cup matches.
Before that happened, Maori Television put in a controversial
bid of its own, backed with taxpayer funds, and would have
ended up competing with TVNZ.
Those bids were withdrawn and replaced by the joint bid with
the matches shared between the broadcasters.
Sky TV has the international rights to the World Cup.
