Can Australian rugby survive a move away from Fox Sports to a streaming service?

Rugby Australia Chief Executive Raelene Castle. Picture: AAP

Rugby Australia has embarked on a high-risk strategy by turning its back on its 25-year broadcast partnership with Fox Sports.

And if it all blows up in Raelene Castle’s face, the biggest loser will be the already battered and bruised game.

Castle appears to be taking a punt that there is more money for the game in doing a deal with a streaming service rather than an established broadcaster. But with the game already struggling to compete in the crowded Australian sporting market, it remains to be seen if significant numbers of rugby fans will follow the code into the streaming universe.

Months of talks between Fox Sports and Rugby Australia came to a halt on Wednesday and it now looks as if the code will make a deal with Optus.

Rugby union has struggled to attract TV viewers in recent years. Picture: AAP

Since rugby went professional in 1996, Fox — owned by News Corp, publisher of The Australian — has broadcast all Super Rugby games and screened Wallabies Tests in conjunction with a free-to-air network. Optus has apparently offered RA more money, aiming to stream Super Rugby as they do the English Premier League.

But this is uncharted territory and it takes Australian rugby away from the broadcast environment that has built the game throughout the professional era.

The relationship between pay TV and major professional sporting codes has been a key factor in the growth of these sports in the past three decades.

Lucrative rights deals between broadcasters and sports such as cricket, rugby league and AFL have injected huge amounts of money into the sports and made them what they are today.

The same can be said of rugby, which made the leap from the amateur era to professionalism hand-in-hand with Fox Sports.

Fox has been actively involved in strengthening and developing all these codes – it’s in their interests. The stronger the sport, the more people who are involved and interested, the more eyeballs will be watching on TV.

The interests of Optus, on the other hand, lie not in contributing to the development of sport but in attracting subscribers to its phone services. Optus Sport charges a monthly fee for access to its English Premier League streaming service, but it is free if you subscribe to an eligible mobile or home phone plan.

Optus Sport has broadcast the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the Premier League, among other football competitions. Picture: Optus Sport

The Premier League, one of the world’s most successful sporting brands, has coped with the drop-off in TV ratings that came with switching to a streaming service, because of its underlying strength and multiple revenue sources.

Australian rugby, under siege on a variety of fronts and already battling for relevance, may not have the strength to survive such a move.