FOR the first time in more than 20 years, Channel Nine might not have the rights to broadcast rugby league next year.
Fox Sports is also not guaranteed to retain the five live matches a week to which it holds the rights, games are likely to be available on the internet and the NRL premiership could have a new naming-rights sponsor.
Welcome to the brave new world of rugby league, where the newly formed ARL Commission makes decisions in the best interests of the game and no one else.
The first positive sign came last week when the commission decided to scrap the controversial McIntyre system used in the finals series since 1999.
For years, NRL officials had publicly and privately defended the finals format but at their first board meeting since being appointed on February 10, the eight commissioners voted to adopt the model used by the AFL.
Many more important decisions that will affect the future of the game lie ahead this year - not the least being the next broadcast deal. How much the game gets for the television rights will determine the amount of the salary cap, the size of grants from the NRL to clubs and whether new clubs are admitted to the premiership.
NRL clubs have agreed to work on the salary cap being increased from $4.3 million to $5 million next season so anything less than $1 billion for a five-year broadcast deal would be seen as a failure.
Some within the game are anticipating the deal will be worth up to $1.4 billion, putting the commissioners and ARLC chief executive David Gallop under pressure to better AFL's $1.25 billion deal.
To achieve that, the ARLC is prepared to break up the cartel of Nine, Fox Sports and Telstra that has controlled the NRL's free-to-air, pay-TV, new media and sponsorship rights deals since the end of the Super League war in 1997.
Channel Nine has been the game's free-to-air broadcaster for even longer, having assumed the rights from Channel Ten in 1990 after the rival network failed to meet payments for its $43 million three-year deal.
Nine owner Kerry Packer was also given the pay-TV rights by the ARL, prompting Rupert Murdoch to start the breakaway Super League competition as News Ltd needed league content for Foxtel.
As part of the Super League peace deal in 1997, News Ltd was given the first and last right of refusal on broadcast rights until 2022 and Channel Nine the free-to-air rights until 2007.
News Ltd gained a five-year extension on those terms as a condition of handing control of the game to an independent commission, but that is no longer the advantage it was when the media empire ran the NRL.
From now on, Fox Sports will be expected to pay the code that easily dominates the most-watched programs on pay TV each year more than AFL receives per game.
Coincidentally, it could be Murdoch's son Lachlan - a key figure in the Super League war - who could help end the stranglehold on the game by Nine, News and Telstra - partners in Foxtel.
Lachlan Murdoch was at last week's NRL launch, and the Channel Ten chairman is interested in bidding for matches from next season, including Monday Night Football and State of Origin.
Channel Seven is also believed to be interested in securing rights to some league matches, and the Herald has been told the commission will wait until after the exclusive three-month negotiating period with the present rights holders expires on May 1 before making any decision, so it can talk to rival bidders.
Both Ten and Seven have money to spend on league as Ten no longer has the rights to any AFL matches, and the $95 million a year that Seven is paying for four free-to-air matches is similar to the previous deal the two networks shared.
