There's an intriguing situation in the UK at the moment, with Ofcom (the equivalent of our Commerce Commission) proposing restrictions on British Telecom's wholesale broadband profits.
BT paid £900m to steal Champions League soccer rights from ITV and BSkyB.
The telco has used free sports channels as an incentive to get people to sign on, or to upgrade their broadband plans (customer on other ISPs do have have pay).
Speculation is that BT could push up the bidding as much as 40% when the football rights come up for renewal.
The BBC and others have fretted about this "commercial bubble" — the bubble bit being that Premier League clubs are using their inflated share of TV revenue to splurge on new players.
But to me, it also does the disruptive power of new media and new technology.
Spark is not in the same situation as BT; it doesn't own the network since the Chorus spin-off. But imagine the power punch of Spark buying Super Rugby, All Blacks or World Cup rights, then offering games via Lightbox (to customers of all ISPs) and through traditional broadbcast parters (maybe TV3 or TVNZ).
Coliseum Sports Media is an obvious one to take on Sky over rugyby, but it's already tried then lost its appetite (though gained interest, and wins, in other areas).
Spark is intriguing because it could, like BT, use sport as a loss leader to push other services. Interesting times.
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For a possible pay TV future, Rugby Union, Spark should look north
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