Rugby Australia and Fox Sports "have begun preliminary discussions" about televising Sydney and Brisbane Great Public Schools rugby matches as part of a grassroots product that also will "breathe new life into the previously discarded concept of an Australian club championship," according to Wayne Smith of THE AUSTRALIAN. The approach was made by Rugby Australia to Fox Sports and is at "such an early stage that GPS officials were not even aware that talks were happening" until Tuesday. Nonetheless, the concept has excited TV execs, who recognize that GPS rugby is both "enormously popular and customarily a brilliant, free-flowing example of the code." Fox Sports Head of TV Steve Crawley said, "Fox Sports CEO Peter Campbell is working well with Raelene Castle (the RA CEO) and there is a lot of useful dialogue happening." It would be "highly unlikely for GPS rugby to make it to air next season," but a new broadcast deal will come into effect at the start of '21 "and clearly RA officials are hoping to have it arranged well before then." The concept of televising GPS rugby was raised at the RA board meeting in Sydney on Monday as part of a "larger discussion of ways to get more exposure of the game," from grassroots level to the third-tier National Rugby Championship (THE AUSTRALIAN, 2/20).
