Rugby's northern and southern giants will pool broadcast and sponsorship sales in a revenue-sharing model that is a first for world sport.
South Africa's Springboks are at the heart of a historic shake-up in rugby's finances. Sanzaar, the southern hemisphere body that represents South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina, has agreed with the Six Nations to sell all media rights and commercial deals together for the first time.
The model is the first of its kind in sport. Southern hemisphere unions will receive a share of the profits from the Six Nations and the British & Irish Lions tours. European unions will, in turn, share in the broadcast and sponsorship income from the Rugby Championship and from Rugby's Greatest Rivalry, the series between South Africa and New Zealand.
A new rights management agency will oversee the sales. Its job is to package the sport's marquee properties and grow revenues across the game, rather than leaving each competition to negotiate on its own.
For South African rugby, the Springboks' showdowns with the All Blacks now sit inside a bigger commercial structure that also benefits from the Six Nations' reach. The unions are betting that selling together will be worth more than selling apart, and the rest of world sport will be watching to see if they are right.
