Wonder if we’ll get any reporting on why paramount didn’t bid. They had $6b for the AFL a few years ago and nothing but crickets for this major deal. In the end I think 10 will die out in a few years time.
Nobody was tuning-in to those games anyway, really. I think Nine soon learned it was a bit of a dud and more a liability, both pulling down audiences and share (on a network level anyway) and probably more so investing in the production resources with the host set and segments, talent and crew.
Nine can now go back to dusting off those old Lethal Weapon tapes on Saturday nights again 
Joining the party with Seven, having also recently lost those AFL rights, but was a more significant and longer-running tradition.
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NRL clubs provide digital memberships that provide a 12 month subscription to Kayo.
Instead of paying $45.99 per month for Kayo Premium, you can get it for $30.41 via rhe Cowboys.
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I’m not paying for two memberships in the NRL just to get cheaper Kayo.
I don’t do it in the AFL, and sure as hell I won’t be doing it in the NRL.
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7’s was because they wanted and got 7+ streaming and Fox wanted super Saturday in return. 9’s is probably because they didn’t want to pay a big increase and hence Fox gets more exclusivity
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The title of this thread needs to be modified. The deal is from 2027-2034 not 2028.
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Nope 2028. Still one more year of current deal.
From V’landys himself:
“Starting from 2027 for a seven-year period where we’re getting $5.3 billion in media rights. Most is cash. 95% is cash. 5% is Contra. This compares to the previous deal where the Contra was 10%. So we have got a 90% uplift in cash”.
News.com.au also states 2027.
It’s 2028. Either it’s been transcribed wrong by BlackBox or PVL misspoke.
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Some articles refer to “from the end of the 2027 season”.
This is kind of right. Those saturday night games would barely reach 200k metro viewers. It’s a dead slot, which is why 7 gave up on it for their AFL rights. I still think having saturday night FTA is better than not having it, but you shouldn’t overpay for it. It’s also a lot less valuable than thurs, fri, sun arvo.
Not sure of the accuracy
But I feel like this is the closest that 9 has come to losing the NRL. I don’t think 7 was that close to losing the AFL (mainly because 7 & Fox was a joint bid).
I can definitely see why 9 pivoted and tried for as much of status quo as possible
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News (Daily Telegraph) suggested that Stanton being in London and the Stefanovic issue gave the ARLC the impression that they weren’t all that interested.
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The broadcasters now have no say in fixturing, with full control lying with the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) from the start of the 2028 season.
Speaking on Kick Off with Brandy and Jimmy, V’Landys explained how crucial this aspect was to the deal ultimately being finalised.
“There’s other elements of the agreement that we haven’t been able to announce, and one of them is the fact that we now get back to do the structure of the season and the draw and that’s important to us because we want to make it a fair and equitable draw for everybody and not just look at the broadcasters,” he said.
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How Karl Stefanovic chaos on Nine boss’s Wimbledon trip almost cost network its landmark NRL deal
Karl Stefanovic’s infamous podcast interview with Tommy Robinson plunged Nine into crisis - it also came agonisingly close to costing the network its NRL deal.
Had it not been for Tonagh, there is every chance Seven and Ten bosses would have been fronting Tuesday afternoon’s press conference at NRL headquarters alongside Foxtel boss Patrick Delany.
That decision by Stefanovic diverted the attention of the Nine executives, and it also caused issues within Rugby League Central.
It is believed that his decision to bring Robinson on the pod went down terribly, given the state of negotiations at the time.
Decision-makers within the NRL were then left to reconsider their options with Nine with other offers on the table.
To make matters worse, chief executive Matt Stanton was soaking up the atmosphere in the Royal Box at Wimbledon as things were falling apart.
It has been reported that the intervention of Nine chair Peter Tonagh was needed in order to save the deal.
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There has been some speculation about whether Fox will be the host broadcaster for all regular season games under this new deal. I haven’t seen this confirmed anywhere; however, does anyone think that the following statement from the NRL’s press release points to this being the case?
Nine will provide exclusive coverage of the NRL Grand Final and both
Men’s and Women’s State of Origin Series and will simulcast three weekly
NRL and NRLW fixtures.
To me this wording implies that Nine will take the Fox feed for their three weekly regular season matches, but perhaps I’m reading too much into this. Keen to hear what others think.
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Mumbrella’s James Manning has written a detailed analysis of the new rights deal.
https://mumbrella.com.au/international-rights-key-to-unlocking-nrl-value-for-dazn-928924
On the international rights he writes
Foxtel parent Dazn is betting big time on the attraction of the sport to a chunk of its 100m existing subscribers, and as a lure to attract new ones.
Global sports rights aren’t often sold, but Dazn has experience with that after picking up NFL Game Day Pass rights outside of the US.
Here Dazn has gone a step further, with all rights outside ANZ and PNG. It could decide to offer the Fox League channel to its own customers or other platforms, or on-sell some games to other carriers.
Those Dazn global rights include the three State of Origin clashes.
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Did DAZN get just the worldwide streaming rights or all the worldwide rights?
Ampere Analysis finds Foxtel’s new NRL rights agreement will push the Australian broadcaster to devote around 90 per cent of its content budget to live sport, widening the gap between sports-focused broadcasters and entertainment-led streaming services.
The record deal also highlights the increasing importance of premium sports rights to broadcasters competing for audiences and subscribers.
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