Irb Strikes Deal With Press In Media Row

A last minute deal saw the International Rugby Board relax its restrictions on
media coverage of the Rugby World Cup thus avoiding a media boycott of the
tournament from a number of leading press agencies.

An alliance of press agencies, including Reuters and Agence France Presse,
and a number of newspaper groups had threatened a media boycott after the IRB
change the media regulations on coverage of the tournament.

The IRB had insisted on a maximum usage limit of 40 pictures a match and the
use of only three minutes of news conference or ‘locker room’ video online
during any match.

However, following lengthy negotiations between the news organisations and
the IRB, a compromise was agreed that news and sport websites will be allowed to
use a maximum of 200 photographs during games.

Media organisations stressed that the limit only applied to this Rugby World
Cup – and added that editors should be able to use as many pictures as they feel
is necessary at future sporting events.

To protect the TV rights of broadcasters there is a clause that states that
such images should not be presented in a way that “emulates video” – meaning
stills will not be shown at a greater speed than one every 30 seconds.

While RWC Ltd did not agree to relent on the three-minute video restriction,
a meeting has been set for Monday to ‘discuss ways of identifying improved
opportunities’ to use video material from the tournament ‘beyond the existing
three-minute limit per day’.

Representatives from both sides will also meet in late October following the
end of the World Cup ‘to address the wider issues that have divided the two
sides including the recognised need to canvas opinions of a wider cross-section
of news media sectors’.