AUSTRALIAN pay television operators Optus Vision say they are taking legal action to challenge Rupert Murdoch's £405 million exclusive rights for Test matches and the Super 12 series.

Under the 10 year deal, Murdoch's News Corp has Australian broadcast rights to the Super 12 series between Australia, New Zealand and South Africa Test matches and other major domestic matches in Australia.

The deal was signed last year in Johannesburg by News Corp and the three nations' unions during the World Cup.

The chief executive of Optus Vision, Geoffrey Cousins, said in a statement that Optus had taken legal action in the supreme court against the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) and News Corp.

Cousins said the ARU had indicated the Australian rights would be held by Channel Seven, a non pay station, who have a two per cent stake in Optus.

"Because of the agreement between the ARU and Channel Seven that existed at the time, we are claiming the ARU had no right to hand over the pay television rights to News Corp," he said.

Optus' pay television rivals Foxtel, owned by Murdoch and the Australian telecommunications group Telstra, now broadcast all major matches between the three countries. Foxtel and Telstra are co defendants in the Optus action.