Rugby union has a problem which is not going away. How is a sport supposed to grow long-term if the majority of the UK population are unable to watch it regularly on television? How do you ensure the entire country is obsessed about the England team leading into a home World Cup when all four Twickenham Tests in November are on Sky?

The awkward questions keep coming. How do you properly showcase the European Champions Cup when this season’s tournament is not available on the vast majority of terrestrial TV? Premiership highlights are shown on ITV on a Sunday night but, in terms of live games, the league exists almost exclusively behind a paywall. If you are an England fan too young – or old – to watch games in a pub or bar and without the financial wherewithal to afford a Twickenham ticket, you must wait for the occasional Six Nations game to watch your country play.

When the wealthiest rugby men in England, having just struck a record-breaking television deal with BT Sport, start talking about showing games free of charge there is clearly something up. In the course of a wide-ranging interview with the Guardian this month, the Bath owner, Bruce Craig, revealed that a return to free-to-air club rugby – albeit on a limited basis – is being seriously considered.

In France, where free-to-air experiments have been taking place, the figures are instructive. An aggregate of two million people watched Toulon v Scarlets and Stade Français v Newport Gwent Dragons last Saturday (free-to-air France Télévisions gets the first pick of games in each European round). A whopping 4.5m watched last season’s Top 14 final on terrestrial television.

“There’s no reason why we couldn’t do the same thing, to democratise rugby and allow more people to watch it,” says Craig. “The more people we can get watching rugby the better.”

Craig, and others, have also noted what has subsequently happened to Canal Plus’s subscriptions which, he reports, have “massively increased” as greater numbers have been drawn to the increasingly marketable Top 14 after initially seeing the games on terrestrial.

He foresees the model being replicated on this side of the Channel, perhaps with one game per fortnight being aired on a terrestrial platform. “There’s a precedent there. If you get the interest of Joe Public he’s then going to say: ‘I want a BT Sport subscription,’” says Craig. “The potential interest in rugby in England is higher than it is in France.”

Currently, though, the biggest UK audience for a European fixture this season, based on initial ‘overnight’ figures, was 172,000 for Bath v Toulouse on BT Sport last Saturday. Almost half a million people, by comparison, now watch the ITV Premiership highlights show each week. They cannot all be paid-up members of the David Flatman Fan Club.

There is also a wider issue of perception in all this. Those who still cling to the outdated idea of rugby union as an entirely middle-class construct are less easy to confound when the professional game is only fleetingly visible to large swathes of the population, particularly in the inner cities.

It does not help, either, that so many ordinary people have been disappointed in the ballot for the most competitively priced Rugby World Cup tickets. Judging by the number of failed applicants – this correspondent included – there are a lot of people out there interested in going to see some rugby. Perhaps the organisers could combine with Premiership rugby and instead offer cut-price tickets to club games next season for those genuine fans who missed out entirely?

True, people will be able to watch the World Cup games on free-to-air television next year. But, once the tournament is over and the commentators are handed back to their usual employers, when will ITV next show a live game of rugby in prime time? BT Sport and Sky are currently refusing to allow even a package of European Champions Cup highlights to be aired on terrestrial television (apart to the Welsh-language S4C), arguing with some justification that they have paid millions specifically to broadcast the games themselves.

As cricket has found, though, audiences and interest can wither if there is not enough quality sport for the non-dish-owning section of the population to watch. Ever-increasing TV revenue is all very well but bums on seats – in the grounds and on sofas – matter too.

Which is why the most significant game of rugby anywhere in the world this weekend is being staged in Chicago on Saturday, when the USA Eagles will be hosting New Zealand. The match is being shown on the main NBC channel, where the bigger Premier League football games are also aired. It is a huge opportunity to show Americans there is a compelling alternative to their normal gridiron diet, as well as a salutary reminder to the rest of us.

Contrary to the satellite-driven business plans of the past two decades, expect more free-to-air games to be part of rugby union’s ongoing efforts to broaden its appeal across Europe.

Watershed kick-offs

One of the byproducts of televised rugby is the depressing kick-off times. Life is not getting any easier for the paying punter. Saturday night at Parc y Scarlets, Sunday evening in High Wycombe … these are anti-social times even for those sitting at home, and an energy-sapping twilight zone for those wishing to attend in person. They will have to get used to it: England’s international against Samoa next month kicks off at 7pm and the Six Nations will again kick off on a Friday night at the Millennium Stadium. Hotel prices in Cardiff are already extortionate and driving home having consumed five pints of Brains is an oxymoron. It is another issue deserving of a serious rethink.

One to watch this week ...

USA v New Zealand. We already know who is going to win. The All Blacks can afford to rest key men with England awaiting them at Twickenham the following weekend. But a sold-out 62,000 crowd at Soldier Field in Chicago potentially offers rugby in the US a springboard to a whole new marketplace. Show themselves to be competitive, back it up over the next couple of years when a Rugby World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games offer global exposure, and who knows what the future will bring?

Bristol, coincidentally, have just announced they will be giving trials to two former college American football players next month. It could be just the start.