The Australian Rugby Union will meet with pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports this week in a bid to finalise a rights deal for its proposed National Rugby Championship, according to The Australian newspaper.
ARU chief executive Bill Pulver is understood to want to negotiate a one-year deal with Fox with the option to extend for a further year.
The NRC would be a third-tier competition bridging the gap between club rugby and the Super Rugby competition contested by leading franchises from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Fox, which is the exclusive broadcaster of Super Rugby in Australia, is believed to be demanding significant concessions from the ARU in return for showing the new competition.
Pulver’s vision is for a tournament to rival the national Currie Cup and ITM Cup competitions in South Africa and New Zealand respectively, with sides drawn from geographical regions and paying a participation fee.
Such a tournament has been attempted before in Australia, but the Australian Rugby Championship lasted a solitary season in 2007.