In rugby-mad New Zealand, a pay television network is forecasting revenue of between $750 000 and $1 million a year once they introduce a channel dedicated solely to rugby union.

Pay TV operator Sky Network Television Ltd. will next month begin broadcasting a 24-hour rugby channel that will be free for a month to subscribers who take Sky Television's sports package. After that it will cost just under $1 per month.

Chief executive John Fellet said he expected at least 25 per cent of the company's 300 000 digital service subscribers to sign up to the channel within two years of its launch.

Fellet said content would be drawn from a number of sources, but it would not be a rehash of rugby coverage from the existing sports channels.

He said the channel would broadcast international matches that Sky Television didn't already cover, or had limited coverage of, such as the Northern Hemisphere's Six Nations championship.

Similarly, the channel could provide coverage of Northern Hemisphere tours by Southern Hemisphere nations, such as Australia and South Africa.

There are also plans to have extended and more detailed pre-and-post event coverage of New Zealand rugby union games.

"The trend in the US for Super Bowl Sunday is that the television channel that is covering the Super Bowl is there from 9 o'clock in the morning, even if the game doesn't start until 1 o'clock, and all the way through to the post-game interviews.

"There is a complete and utter dissection. Sometimes they may not even leave the ground until two or three hours after a game," Fellet said.

Sky Television also wants to revisit historic rugby Test matches if the archival footage is of broadcast quality.