The rights to screen Rugby World Cup games could escalate into a bidding war between state broadcasters using taxpayer funds.
TVNZ and Maori Television (MTS) are competing for the rights to screen the games, with an angry Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples today saying MTS was not treated fairly in the lead-up to a bidding deadline on October 2.
MTS put its bid in first, with TVNZ following at the last minute with a consortium bid involving TV3, backed by the Government. TVNZ had been given information on the value of the MTS bid, Dr Sharples, co-leader of the Maori Party said.
"I think it's grossly unfair," he told reporters.
Iwi were willing to put up cash to raise the MTS bid, he said.
"Iwi have come out and offered us funding because they just believe it's such a win-win situation for Maori... I won't reveal that but there have been some offers of specific amounts, considerable money.
"It was a reaction by some iwi to say to us 'you've been done and we should help you'."
Ross Young, general manager of Rugby World Cup (RWC) for Rugby World Cup Ltd and the International Rugby Board, told NZPA it was possible an increased MTS bid would be considered.
"All the interested parties are at liberty to provide any extra information that they want."
The same opportunity would be opened up to other parties.
"The thing is we don't want to turn it into a bidding war either."
Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman said this morning the Government had sought cooperation between broadcasters in the week leading up to the October 2 deadline.
"We made it clear to MTS that we were very keen for them to work with TVNZ and TV3 and they had said they would be doing that and then later in the week the position changed.
"They decided on Friday. They announced they would be going it alone."
TVNZ got its new bid in that day.
But Dr Sharples and MTS disputed there were any such government efforts.
"That's absolute rot. There were bids on the table by TVNZ and they were turned down," Dr Sharples said.
"They put another individual one on, they were turned down. There were no bids when Maori Television put their bid up... what's this talk of consortium?"
MTS was not treated fairly as TVNZ had information about the value of its bid, he said.
Dr Coleman said he could not recall if he gave TVNZ the value of the MTS bid, but believed it was widely known in the industry.
The MTS bid of about $3m was funded from Te Puni Kokiri (Ministry for Maori Development) money set aside to foster Maori development, not MTS's operational spending.
Cabinet will have to sign off any funds, likely to be $3m-$4m, if the TVNZ bid proceeds.
"TVNZ were requesting a level playing field. You can do the sums - you can see it's going to be a reasonable amount of money," Dr Coleman said.
Sub-licensing and rights could reduce costs, he said.
The TVNZ bid was a last-minute one because the Government learnt of the MTS bid very close to the deadline, but Dr Sharples said there had been communication about MTS's plans.
Dr Coleman said coverage was the issue as MTS suffered black spots, but Dr Sharples said that was not a problem and questioned the real motivation.
"What is the purpose of them bidding against a public broadcaster who has a perfectly good bid in, because I know and you all know coverage is not the issue."
The Government told Dr Sharples about the TVNZ consortium bid last week.
The disagreement does not endanger the Maori Party's confidence and supply agreement with the government but Dr Sharples was clearly unhappy.
An apology would be nice, he said. "I just think it's been a breach of etiquette and fair play".
Responding to NZPA questions an MTS spokeswoman said the organisation was not approached at any stage prior to the bid being submitted with any request, including one to reach an agreement with other broadcasters.
MTS would not be withdrawing its bid and had not been consulted on the TVNZ bid so could not say if it would participate or not.
She said the IRB had asked for bids not to be from consortiums or include subcontracting.
Mr Young there was no blanket rule about consortiums or subcontracting.
"As long as the appropriate value was attributed to them and the platforms made sense ... we were always open to suggestions."
In Parliament Prime Minister John Key said the Government accepted the process was imperfect and it was partly to blame.
The Labour Party said the Government's handling was shambolic.
If TVNZ's consortium bid won, it and TV3 would have six games each and MTS could have 16. All three would be able to screen the final, semis and third and fourth play-off.
