Some pertinent quotes from this article.
"Nine’s recent media rights decisions have now directly funded the NRL’s opposition sports in both the AFL and rugby union. Nine paid $100 million to rugby union for three years broadcasting rights while seeking reductions from the NRL for reduced content during the pandemic. Effectively, Nine took the money due to rugby league and handed it to rugby union (a sport that has sought to kill off the independent sport of rugby league for over 120 years). Some loyalty by Nine!
At the same time, Nine has ignored international rugby league (no bid for games during the upcoming Rugby League World Cups in England starting next month) and advertised rugby union widely during important rugby league telecasts such as the State of Origin series. For the NRL to seemingly countenance this behaviour from Nine without public reproach is quite remarkable.
The simple facts are that rugby league’s cumulative TV ratings for the NRL alone in 2022 greatly exceeded those of the AFL (106,265,000 viewers for the AFL, 118,964,000 for the NRL). This does not include separate ratings for State of Origin 2022 (a fixture the AFL no longer plays) or the international game of rugby league (we are about to see 61 matches of rugby league played at the three World Cups in England in October, something the AFL cannot offer).
Accordingly, the higher rating game in 2022 (
NRL) was paid less money for TV rights than was the lower rating game (AFL). Let that sink in for a while.
Ramblings about the longer length of telecasts in the AFL hold little weight when more eyeballs are watching the NRL. If length of telecast solely drove value, Test cricket would be the most expensive sporting product in the world – which it most clearly is not; LIV Golf would not be playing reduced 54-hole tournaments (over the usual 72 holes played on the regular US PGA Tour); and the NFLs $10 billion per annum for TV rights for 870.40 hours content in the regular season would not dwarf MLBs $470 million per year media deal for 7,290 hours of content in their regular season."
Time to move both V'Landys and especially Nein on.