Nine and Foxtel will today announce a multibillion-dollar agreement to keep airing the NRL in what is the most expensive rights deal for an Australian sporting code in history.
The deal, which is set to run until 2034, makes the sport more valuable than the AFL, a longstanding goal of the Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys.
This masthead has previously reported that the NRL agreed to a seven-year $5 billion deal with its existing broadcast partners, which includes $150 million annually from Nine for the free-to-air TV rights, with Foxtel paying $520 million annually for the pay TV component.
It eclipses AFL’s record $4.5 billion deal over seven years, which the rival sport signed in 2022 and which runs from 2025 to 2031, despite mainstream media companies coming under increasing cost pressures in the years since.
More to come.
Kishor Napier-Raman is a senior business writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Previously he worked as a CBD columnist and reporter in the federal parliamentary press gallery.Connect via X or email.
Chris Barrett is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former South-East Asia correspondent for the Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.
