NO REPLY YET

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 944, 10 April 1930, Page 1

NO REPLY YET

N.Z. RUGBY UNION AND BROADCASTING COMPANY PROBLEM FOR ANNUAL MEETING From Our Resident Reporter \YELLINGTOX, Wednesday. No reply has yet been received by the New Zealand Rugby Union to its offer to the New Zealand Radio Broadcasting Company for the rights of broadcasting the matches of the approaching British Rugby tour. It is unlikely that the New Zealand Rugby Union will Tiand over the rights for nothing now that it has set out definite terms, though the matter will be discussed at the annual meeting of the union on Thursday. Everything depends upon the attitude of the provincial unions, some of whom are known to have suffered financial loss through the broadcasting of the matches played in Australia last season, and who will naturally oppose granting the rights to broadcast. NOT NECESSARILY BINDING

However, while the delegates will express the opinion of their unions, their decision will not necessarily bind provincial unions anxious to put their matches “on the air.” Provincial unions will run matches on their own grounds and will have the final say in what is to be done, though if the management committee of the union accepts the recommendation of the annual meeting in the event of a vote adverse to broadcasting, refusal of broadcasting rights may be one of the terms laid down by the committee before the match. The vital concern is with the test games and here the scales seem to be weighted against the Broadcasting Company unless it is willing to pay for the privilege. There is no avoiding the fact that to some unions the broadcasting of matches means loss and that the N.Z.R.U., or some of its constituent bodies, does not see why the privilege shall be given free.