The AFL remains the king of TV broadcast deals despite a win-win deal for the NRL with Nine, but all eyes will be on Cricket Australia as it edges closer to the expiry of its deal with Seven and Foxtel.
Australian cricket might be riding high after returning to the winners’ circle and dashing to a two-nil lead in this summer’s Ashes series, but the country’s two big winter football codes of AFL and NRL still rule the roost when it comes to big TV broadcast bucks.returns the code to its pre-COVID-19 rights perch after it was forced to renegotiate with its broadcast partners and discount rights for the past two seasons because of the pandemic.
Foxtel also recently agreed to inject more money into the league to finance a 17th team, the Redcliffe Dolphins, in exchange for more exclusive games involving the Brisbane Broncos, in which News Corp owns a majority stake.While the NRL has managed to increase its broadcast revenue, it did not jump as much as previous deals in the heyday of sports rights. The deal announced in 2012 for the 2013 to 2017 seasons was worth $1.025 billion – twice the $500 million agreed for 2007-12.
But it is a gain on the sharply discounted rate the NRL had to accept for the past two seasons after COVID-19 forced the code and itsresulting in Nine paying $103.5 million plus $15 million in contra annually for the final two years of the deal. Nine Entertainment may use Stan Sport to compete with Foxtel for the pay TV rights to the code as a test case of what it can then offer the NRL when all of its rights come up for negotiation in 2027.Marquard says the NRL’s move to bring its free-to-air rights into line with the pay TV rights schedule means it will be able to look at all options in 2027.
He says the TV and streaming ecosystem may have evolved again by 2027, but that the NRL is set up well to capitalise on a more mature sports streaming market, and Nine has ensured it has a seat at the negotiating table for when all the rights are up for grabs.
With a very public difficult relationship with Seven West Media – chief executive James Warburton was openly frustrated with Cricket Australia after COVID-19 disrupted the schedule and the organisation resisted Seven’s push for a $5.3 million discount on its rights fee – the rights negotiations will probably be challenging, even without considering how the pandemic will continue to affect the sport.
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