Next TV deal discussion 2028 -

[BuffaloRules]

Some of us have repeatedly noted that the advertising market is down since the AFL did its deal. Some didnt believe.

I assume you never expected Nine to come out and say they are rolling in it and we will pay whatever it takes to keep the NRL …, I note they have still managed to increase earnings in that falling advertising market ..,

However I’ve always said that if there is only one interested bidder ( FTA) it’s going to be tough sledding for the NRL … they are going to need one of the other two to push them … The NRL fills a lot of hours for them ..: I don’t know how many times you can run a new series of MAFS a year if you lose the NRL rights three times a week

 

[Chins]

Sounds good, but you need a credible alternate FTA option otherwise the NRL to some degree are stuck with what 9 is willing to put on the table.

Go it alone. Streaming is a piece of piss

 

[i0Nic]

This year everyone is going to be playing hard ball. Fox already were doing that last year with similar wording about not “overpaying” for content.

These companies will be nothing without the content and the NRL is their absolute top content. Losing the NRL would be nines worst nightmare. Or like others have said they may not lose it but they risk nrl selling off some of the content to others to pit it right up against nine’s other properties. Do they really want to go against the NRL here?

Low ball the nrl and nrl will carve off origin, internationals and Monday night football to other bidders. The nrl will get paid that way. Or come to the table with a reasonable offer and get the whole package. Like as if Nine don’t want to make a big play at nrl and get fta and Stan as well.

The time for underpaying the NRL is over.

We’ll see a lot more of this posturing this year from everyone - they can see what PVL and the NRL are doing, repeatedly positioning themselves rightly as the number 1 sport and number 1 tv product in the country. NRL are looking for the big bucks and they’re doing what they can to mitigate the impact. It’s what all good negotiators do.

 

[Wb1234]

Interesting to see how Nine would react to Seven running League against MAFS on a Monday night, revolting as it is, it`s a big rater and no signs of going away. Nine wouldn`t be happy.
NRL could say to get the number we want, we have to hive off Mondays, lot of pressure for Nine then to come to the party and make it worth the NRL`s time to give them all FTA.
Seven do seem to be angling towards Mondays though with this 7.30 pm timeslot for their League show, lot of ducks and drakes going on I suspect., each station trying to send the other broke by making them pay more for rights.

Free to air rights are so cheap

Origin is worth 50 million so they are paying just over 100 million for the nrl comp Including finals

Seven would need to be 70 million for origin and Monday night footy

I think if seven do start off with Monday night footy down the track they could bid for the lot and punt the afl which is underperforming

Nines coverage will never improve they are useless at covering league

 

[Wb1234]

Nine won’t ‘overpay’ for NRL rights, says CEO​

Nine boss Matt Stanton says the broadcaster won’t overpay to retain the NRL rights if the financials “don’t stack up”, as the company revealed it has inked a number of AI deals through its publishing business.
The advertising market for free-to-air television has weakened since the NRL last agreed its rights deal in 2020 and the AFL secured a $4.5 billion deal in 2022, Stanton said after announcing an earnings jump for Nine of 6 per cent in the December half.

Nine Entertainment chief executive Matt Stanton has secured another half year of rising profits.Oscar Colman
“We have to work through to make sure we get a good deal,” Stanton said.
“Premium assets such as the NRL rights, MAFS [Married at First Sight] and the Olympics are still good drivers of commercial outcomes. They’re still very good assets. You just got to be very disciplined to make sure ... we don’t overpay.”
Last week, Rugby League Commission chair Peter V’Landys confirmed that broadcast rights negotiations had begun. The current deal with Nine and Foxtel is to expire at the end of the 2027 season. V’Landys has talked up the prospects of securing a similar, if not better, deal to the one struck by the AFL, despite the successive years of advertising revenue declines which have impacted broadcasters.
Nine also revealed it had signed two commercial deals with major Australian organisations to allow the use of its publishing content to train those companies’ proprietary AI large language models (LLMs).
Stanton said there were “a lot more opportunities to come”, and he views the licensing model as a “good revenue stream” in the future.

Nine won’t ‘overpay’ for NRL rights, says CEO

Nine Entertainment grew earnings by 6 per cent in the December half, its first results since the sale of Domain Group.

www.smh.com.au

Of course this was written by a fairfax journo

At least this time we don’t have news Ltd talking down the value of the tv deal since they no longer own Fox

Stan will bid for the pay tv rights but they won’t get them

Seven will bid for origin but won’t get it but might get Monday night footy

 

[Diesel]

wow

lol.. bs. when

Memory not what it was but Said QLD is an AFL state. https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/a...d/news-story/0cbd8b808171c0fe2f74fc59e0e9d95c

 

[Wb1234]

Some of us have repeatedly noted that the advertising market is down since the AFL did its deal. Some didnt believe.

So when Eddie McGuire said that Fox want to cut the afl tv deal it’s bs but the weak ad market will impact the nrl tv deal s

Lmao !

 

[Mother Nature's Son]

Of course this was written by a fairfax journo

Top five stories on the Nine`s Sydney Morning Herald digital sports page are all League related this afternoon, never seen that in my life:

Australian Breaking News Headlines & World News Online | SMH.com.au

Breaking news from Sydney, Australia and the world. Features the latest business, sport, entertainment, travel, lifestyle, and technology news.

www.smh.com.au

sport/nrl/burnin-love-air-v-landys-turns-back-after-aircon-fail-20260224-p5o4xn.html

Warriors demand player swap from clubs seeking to sign Origin star

There’s no lack of interest in Mitchell Barnett, but prospective clubs are going to have to compensate the Warriors in exchange for his signature.

www.smh.com.au

‘His footy IQ is unbelievable’: The man hailed as Dragons’ best off-season recruit

St George Illawarra will premier their new-look attack in Las Vegas. The man charged with making it sing has already made a huge impression on the Red V playmakers.

www.smh.com.au

Parramatta, NRL to investigate images of rising Eels star

Parramatta has been in contact with the NRL about a potential integrity issue after images of star fullback Isaiah Iongi were circulated on social media.

www.smh.com.au

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/grateful-they-let-me-back-lodge-returns-to-us-a-decade-

after-rampage-20260224-p5o4uu.html

Hilarious, Stanton on one hand is saying Nine won`t overpay for NRL, meanwhile in their papers sports pages it`s wall-to-wall NRL, mmm...something doesn`t add up....the paper knows what topics generates the clicks.

 

[insert.pause]

Some of us have repeatedly noted that the advertising market is down since the AFL did its deal. Some didnt believe.

do you really think nine would have said anything different regardless of the health of the ad market?

It doesn’t even matter in the greater schemes of things because of the vast majority of the deal will come from subscription models.

 

[Trifili13]

As noted by a poster above that everyone is just talking from their own position. PVL talking up league as the number 1 in viewers and that we are talking to various broadcasters to scare legitimate bidders to up their price or risk missing out much like a real estate agent saying they have multiple people interestedin the property. While 9 is trying to talk the price down as you would expect. You wouldn't expect 9 to come out and say we must have league otherwise we will suffer so we will open our wallets and give PVL what he wants.

In terms of FTA the only options are 7, 9 and 10. 7 probably realistically can't bid for Friday and weekend games as it already has AFL and PVL would not want league on their secondary channels. Nothing of note has come out of 10 so who knows what they will do. We all know that 9 will bid, question is how much.

For the pay rights probably comes down to how hard Stan goes for them as DAZN hasn't paid 3.5bn for Foxtel and not try and retain league.

While many on here would pay for multiple pay providers to watch all games, personally can't see it being split as it would piss alot of people off given current cost of living pressures and they would just watch FTA and choose 1 of the pay providers, not multiple, especially not knowing where the team you follow will be shown.

 

[Generalzod]

The NRL should give Netflix a go considering they do sports entertainment like the Wrestling, and considering the subscriber base of Netflix especially in America you would think it would make perfect sense to grow the game.

 

[colly]

I assume you never expected Nine to come out and say they are rolling in it and we will pay whatever it takes to keep the NRL …, I note they have still managed to increase earnings in that falling advertising market ..,

However I’ve always said that if there is only one interested bidder ( FTA) it’s going to be tough sledding for the NRL … they are going to need one of the other two to push them … The NRL fills a lot of hours for them ..: I don’t know how many times you can run a new series of MAFS a year if you lose the NRL rights three times a week

that's why a play for Ten and pay arm Paramount shoud in the mix. 4 FTA games suits the fans also. Nine 2games Ten 2 games, on Fri and SUN

 

[BuffaloRules]

that's why a play for Ten and pay arm Paramount shoub in the mix. 4 FTA games suits the fans also. Nine 2games Ten 2 games, on Fri and SUNL

well ..: let’s hope but I’ve seen nothing to suggest they are interested as yet

 

[Mother Nature's Son]

that's why a play for Ten and pay arm Paramount shoub in the mix. 4 FTA games suits the fans also. Nine 2games Ten 2 games, on Fri and SUN

Good to see you sharpening your message mate. Phew, you needed to.

 

[Barney Stubble]

Whos asking Ch 9 to overpay ?

If its 200 mill ish PA , then that's what the rights they have atm , will be worth in 2028
If they want to bugger around again like they did in 2020 , then ask them to use the rectangle wooden thing on the wall

 

[Trifili13]

Potential problem I can see with splitting games across FTA providers is who is going to get the more high profile games. I assume the early Friday game doesn't rate as well as the 8pm kick off. Will the station that gets the 6pm Friday game then get the 4pm Sunday game and visa versa? If there are 4 games on FTA instead of the current 2, how will that impact what the NRL gets from the pay provider. There will then be a bunfight between 3 broadcasters of who is playing at what times. Then overlay that with how the NRL sells SOO and any internationals.

Anyway, interesting times over the next few months.

 

[Barney Stubble]

Potential problem I can see with splitting games across FTA providers is who is going to get the more high profile games. I assume the early Friday game doesn't rate as well as the 8pm kick off. Will the station that gets the 6pm Friday game then get the 4pm Sunday game and visa versa? If there are 4 games on FTA instead of the current 2, how will that impact what the NRL gets from the pay provider. There will then be a bunfight between 3 broadcasters of who is playing at what times. Then overlay that with how the NRL sells SOO and any internationals.

Anyway, interesting times over the next few months.

there's 3 FTA Games atm , not 2
Maybe the Monday game ( if it there even is one, could be Sunday evening ) will be an STV exclusive game & that's where the value will be for the 9th game

 

[Trifili13]

there's 3 FTA Games atm , not 2
Maybe the Monday game ( if it there even is one, could be Sunday evening ) will be an STV exclusive game & that's where the value will be for the 9th game

My mistake, forgot about Thursday night game.

 

[BuffaloRules]

Potential problem I can see with splitting games across FTA providers is who is going to get the more high profile games. I assume the early Friday game doesn't rate as well as the 8pm kick off. Will the station that gets the 6pm Friday game then get the 4pm Sunday game and visa versa? If there are 4 games on FTA instead of the current 2, how will that impact what the NRL gets from the pay provider. There will then be a bunfight between 3 broadcasters of who is playing at what times. Then overlay that with how the NRL sells SOO and any internationals.

Anyway, interesting times over the next few months.

I assume it’s kinda like when there are multiple houses for sale in the same street …the one that is bigger or with the better view tends to go for more money…

 

[Trifili13]

I assume it’s kinda like when there are multiple houses for sale in the same street …the one that is bigger or with the better view tends to go for more money…

Problem is you know what house you are buying so you decide what you are willing to pay. With broadcasting rights potentially split across FTA providers you don't know what teams you will be showing so you cross your fingers you get scheduled a good game that you paid for.