Funny thing, the previous world championships were on regular cable and obviously did not cost a dime, that's how i discovered that our national team was able to their own against decent teams. Like our team qualifying for the quarters in 1991.
I remember also watching the 6 nation tournament for free in the comfort of my home. I guess the network smarten up and figured out that there was not any money to be made by showing it on our air.
Meanwhile Springsteen's song comes to mind, 57 channels and nothing on