I think Seven had the rights to international test matches in the Early 1990s before Nine picked them up?
Yeah, splitting the FTA rights for the NRL and other tournaments like State of Origin and test matches would probably dilute the value somewhat.
All three networks would probably want Origin as those games rate rather highly every year. But realistically, would anyone really want to bid for the NRL as a standalone season package when they’d only get a single FTA exclusive game (the Grand Final) out of it each year?!
I would honestly love to see channel nine lose the rights and see it given a fresh new FTA broadcaster. Unless they somehow pull off some radical deal to have a joint deal with Foxtel to have all the games on Stan (doubt that will happen) then I would hope nine lose the rights.
If I were 10, I would bid on a strategic basis to attain the rights package sans streaming for Paramount + so that when the rights as a whole come up - depending on growth trajectory of the sport with 10’s reinvention of coverage ala Big Bash and hopefully A-League - in 2027 they can blow Kayo / FOX out of the water.
So now we have Karl wanting to be involved in negotiating nine retaining the rights to Rugby League.
The pressure must be on mine to get these rights as there’s much competition from 7 and 10. You’d think mine executives wouldn’t want a journalist involved in this just because their mates with Peter V’landys.
ChannelNews understands that Nine management are concerned that they won’t be able to hold onto their NRL broadcast rights with the network facing challenges from both the Seven and Ten networks who are both chasing the rights to the NRL along with Foxtel.
Nine is believed to be offering $750 Million for the rights with the network also keen to try and get the streaming rights for Stan, which is held by Foxtel and is tipped to given to Foxtel in the future.
The Ten network that is owned by US network CBS Viacom also want the streaming and the free to air rights for their new Paramount + service which went live in Australia this week.
I don’t think this is a reputable source. The article is riddled with errors about the tv rights as well as grammar and punctuation mistakes and then it just rehashes the daily Telegraph articles.
“Sources on Sydney’s north shore are cancelling their stan subscription” - how is that even remotely quantifiable? What a ridiculous assertion.
ChannelNews is run by David Richards, who has been featured on MediaWatch multiple times where he is alleged to have stolen articles from other websites.
