The push to commercialise rugby within a rapidly changing and complicated media world has indirectly led to leading international news agencies suspending coverage of the sport's World Cup.
But rugby's focus on improving its financial gain could backfire for a sport that is trying to extend its global reach.
Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Getty Images announced on Thursday that they would suspend text, photographic and television coverage in a row with the tournament's organisers over media rights.
The agencies, along with a worldwide coalition of newspaper groups, are concerned about Internet picture rights, television access and accreditation terms and have been frustrated after failing to reach an agreement with the organisers.
"When news agencies boycott an event, that's a pretty serious move and it will have an impact on virtually every media everywhere in the world," Larry Kilman, director of communications for the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), said.
"Sports organisations are monetising every aspect of the game and we don't begrudge them the right to do that but we think there is an issue of freedom of information and freedom of the press that comes up."
Analysts at media research group Enders Analysis told Reuters that the problem arose from newspaper groups putting content online, where they have moved beyond just a small number of static images, and whether this devalues the exclusive terms agreed with broadcasters.
"How do you demarcate media rights from different sorts because with the Internet you can't really disassociate video from text anymore," analyst Toby Syfret said. "[Media and sports organisations] haven't worked out the model."
The organisers of the six-week tournament, which begins on Friday and is held every four years, have tried to impose rules on how many photographs can be shown on web sites during a World Cup game and restrict the use of audio-visual materials such as news conferences from newspaper web sites.
The organisers say they are trying to protect the exclusive rights given to broadcasters.
But Kilman and Pippa Collett, managing director of Sponsorship Consulting, said any reduction in media coverage during the World Cup would be bad news for the sport and reduce publicity surrounding the tournament.
"The rugby World Cup is a great event but rugby as a sport is still a long way behind many other sports in terms of its global engagement," Collett said.
"They need to think hard about balancing their short-term commercial priorities against the long term desire to build the significance of the game globally."
Kilman said any reduction in media coverage would also have an impact on the sponsors who rely on the news coverage to project their logos -- publicity that they could not normally buy.
