With Albania this week becoming the latest country to sign up for coverage of the 10-nation tournament, the World Cup is set to derive more revenue from overseas broadcasters than Channel Nine and Fox Sports.

And, significantly, all but the Australian and New Zealand TV deals have been fixed in either US dollars, British pounds or euros - which have soared by about 30 per cent against the Australian dollar during the financial crisis. Just two weeks ago, the Herald reported that TV income for the 18 World Cup matches was expected to be $20m. Of that amount, about half was estimated to be derived from deals with 26 international TV-rights holders outside Australia and New Zealand.

However, as the Australian dollar has crashed from a mid-year high of US98 cents to as low as US63 cents this month, that $10m may now be worth more than $13m.

"It wasn't too long ago that the Australian dollar almost had parity with the US dollar, but it's worked in our favour," tournament director and RLIF chairman Colin Love said.

Of course, the opposite applies if the deals are looked at from a British or European perspective; the lower Australian dollar means the value of their TV deals with Channel Nine, Fox Sports and Sky TV New Zealand have diminished.

But that is offset by the fact that Australia is the tournament host, and the associated costs will be less when converted to US dollars, pounds or euros.

Had the World Cup been staged in Britain, the tournament may have been a financial disaster on the scale of the 2000 tournament - which forced it into an eight-year hiatus.

In place of the World Cup, a Tri-Nations between Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand was held in 2004 and repeated again in 2005 and 2006.

The success of the Tri-Nations led to the controversial World Cup draw in which the Kangaroos, Kiwis and England are pooled together with Papua New Guinea, while the other six countries are grouped in two pools comprising Ireland, Samoa and Tonga in one and France, Fiji and Scotland in the other.

The winners of those pools will play off for the last semi-final berth alongside the top three teams in the so-called super pool.

"The way this draw has been structured, it is almost like a mini Tri-Nations within the World Cup," Love said. "The other pools are going to be competitive and you have the Tri-Nations format, which makes the broadcasters happy.

"It was the great success of the Tri-Nations and the fact that it rated very well that gave us the encouragement to go ahead with the World Cup and also gave the television the confidence that there was a place for it."

After securing major television deals in Australia, New Zealand and Britain, Love engaged former Channel Nine boss Lynton Taylor and IMG Media to sell broadcast rights around the world in a variety of formats, including pre-produced 30-minute highlights packages.

As a result, the World Cup will now be available to 112 million homes with access to games on television in France, Spain, Italy, Russia and much of eastern Europe, the US, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Israel and the territories known as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, most of the Middle East and more than 50 African nations.

"To think that there is sufficient interest in those countries to take the game is extremely encouraging for the future," Love said. "Rugby league will never have had the exposure that it is going to get from this World Cup, so it opens up a lot of opportunities." THE WORLD CUP ON TV Australia and the Pacific: Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu.

UK and Europe: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia, Croatia, England, France, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malta, Poland, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Wales.

Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka.

Africa: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, C.A.R, Chad, Comoros Islands, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Reunion, Rwanda, St Helena, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Middle East and North Africa: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, Umm al-Quwain), Qatar, Yemen, territories located in the areas known as the "West Bank" and the "Gaza Strip".

The Americas: Brazil, US.