✕
Image
Rated 0 out of 5

Report: $5.3b NRL mega deal reached with Nine / Foxtel

Media reports claim the seven year deal will eclipse AFL rights by almost $1 billion, but yet to be formally announced.

11
Leave a comment

Reports are emerging that the ARL Commission is set to seal a $5.3 billion TV rights deal with incumbent broadcasters Nine and Foxtel.

The Australian reports a seven-year NRL contract eclipses AFL’s existing contract by almost $1 billion.

It claims:

* The record deal will be agreed-in-principle over the next 48 hours, following ARL Commission board meeting on Wednesday;
* Existing rights holders FOX and Channel 9 have retained the rights;
* Representatives of the NRL clubs, via a consultation committee, have been notified of the pending mega deal;
* The $5.3b deal runs until the end of 2034 and could reach as high as $5.5b pending investment from New Zealand TV;
* State of Origin will remain on the Nine network; and
* A clause has been added for the provision of a 20th NRL team being included by 2029-30, most likely in New Zealand.

A formal announcement expected in the coming days or early next week.

  • Tagged with NRL

11 Responses

  1. Interesting detail to arise over the last 24 hours in that Fox would produce all regular season games and provide a feed to Nine for the FTA games. That’s quite a departure from what happens now if true.

  2. This is a very sad day in TV and NRL only cares about profits than Fans. As we see more teams expand, the ratio of Matches on FTA will decrease. Perth will be the 18th team joining NRL next year and soon we will see the 19th team go to PNG in 2028 (as the new deal kicks in). And I think 20th team will more likely be in NZ in 2030.
    NRL may be No 1 Winter sport code in terms of viewership over AFL but Nine’s coverage has been stale for so many years now — same old coverage, same old sets, same old callers. Lack of variety, creativity and awareness.

  4. It’s honestly a terrible decision for FTA fans. 3 games a week is a slap in the face given there will be 10 soon and it’s clear the NRL only cares about money and eclipsing the AFL instead about caring about the quality of the product because Nines coverage is awful and has been getting worse every year but also i think it sets this precedence that if its becoming a code wars instead of actually doing better for the sport, then that is a bad thing. The AFL deal was done a few years ago and also they don’t really comment on the other code like the NRL do. They always seem to have this i beat you mentality but i don’t think there can be any comparison because its a totally different product. Rugby League is 80 minutes, AFL is a much longer game and broadcast is at least an hour longer.

    1. “They don’t really comment on the other code like the NRL do”
      You’re kidding right? That’s all they ever do. Commentators, panel shows, apparently it’s the greatest game in the world.
      And during Saturday horse racing and BBL, it’s like they’re obligated to mention AFL several times each broadcast.

  5. This is setting a deadly precedent for major sports on free to air tv
    (yes I’m aware there’s the anti siphoning laws)
    but there’s going to be a point, where networks won’t be able to afford the rights because ad revenue is bad now… imagine what it’s going to be like in 2031-34 when the AFL/NRL rights are back up (they’d be expecting over $5-6 billion each) also with traditional tv decline…

    We may end up with 1 game a round, or it all being behind a paywall..

    1. If previous reports are anything to go by, it’s a better deal for Nine than Foxtel…even if the level of FTA coverage will probably only remain about the same as now.

      The only additional game I can really imagine Nine getting once the NRL expands to 20 teams, is an additional match during the first week of the finals. Certainly, I’d be surprised if the Top 8 didn’t become the Top 10 then anyway.

      As for future AFL/NRL rights deals, I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if those codes expect $10 Billion+ in a decade or so from now! Afterall, it’s only really in the last 15 years or so we’ve had $1 Billion+ deals from both.

      1. In the next AFL deal or even the next NRL deal post 2034 I reckon you will see a massive change. The streamers like Amazon will make a bigger play for the rights & the price will go up. NRL probably didn’t go with Amazon this as we might not be reasy just yet for multioly streamers having the rights. But it might be game on next time.

        1. Perhaps a major streamer could be in contention next time (it’ll obviously be quite a different landscape in 2032-33), but there’s now been a few rounds of rights negotiations where it was speculated that Seven might get the NRL rights before the status quo ultimately remains.

          Also, shouldn’t it be rather obvious by now that *all* major sporting organisations care more about money than their fans? I’m certainly not holding my breath for the day to come where the general public stops supporting major sports as a result though!

          I’m reasonably sure these code wars are a by-product of the broader, also rather childish and pathetic “Sydney vs Melbourne” rivalry (keeping in mind the histories of our two biggest Winter sports!) to at least some degree but this isn’t really the time or place to discuss that in-depth.

  6. While I get the (need for?) hyperbole, the headlines that NRL have overtaken AFL in terms of $$ are bit silly given AFL signed their agreement nearly fours years ago (Sep 2022). Is the contest between the two codes this intense / childish?

Leave a Reply

Advertisement