The ARL gave News everything it wanted to go - a financial package ensuring the continued viability of the Melbourne Storm, the dissolution of the ARL and a five-year extension of its first and last rights option on the broadcasting contract to 2027.
First and last rights make a powerful weapon. When a company is as big as News, the power to trump the last bidder frightens everyone from the negotiating room.
AFL celebrated the day Channel Seven's first and last rights option over its broadcasting rights expired. News parent News Corp is a thousand times more powerful than Seven.
Furthermore, league's first and last rights options are a mess. The agreements with Channel Nine, Fox Sports, Sky New Zealand and News are inter-locked and not understood.
Insofar as broadcasting rights are a code's principal source of revenue, News has gained control of the game until 2027. It can pitch the revenue at a level which controls the code's spending for the next three decades.