Going back to the original point on TV rights, the AFL are absolutely killing it here in the Middle East.
On the TV here, you see two AFL games live every weekend and the AFL advertising for their GF is up there. These ads are being shown in prime time during EPL broadcasts and the NFL broadcasts.
Essentially, the brits get EPL, the Americans here get NFL and us Aussies are given "our national code"...
AFL is the bee's knees here and long term Aussie expats here in Dubai, even Sydney siders, are now "AFL Fans" because that's all that's on from home.
Super 14 gets a run in its short season, but NRL gets ZERO.
English Super League is shown live (as is English club rugby) but no NRL.
The EPL gets saturation coverage so the availability for other sports is slim, but the AFL is getting a huge share of it.
For the record, there are 4 sports channels here in Dubai on Pay-TV and the company is called ShowTime and its affiliation is with FoxSports.
FoxSports is Murdoch and owns the NRL rights, but is doing ZERO with it.
I have contacted NRL marketing about this and they said they were "hoping to get State of Origin and the GF shown next year".
Seriously f###ed if you ask me consider the AFL get two live games a week.