![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sam-McClure-Sports-Journalist.png\")
<\/p>\nAn Age sports journalist has been left red-faced after publishing an unsubstantiated report claiming that London-based streaming giant DAZN was seeking to reduce the cost of its AFL streaming rights\u2014a claim the company has categorically rejected.<\/p>\n
The controversy has raised a larger question inside the media industry: was the Age being used to test the market ahead of the next wave of major Australian sports rights negotiations?<\/p>\n
AFL & NRL Rights Now Among the Most Expensive in Australian Media<\/p>\n
The stakes are enormous.
The AFL\u2019s current broadcast deal\u2014shared between Foxtel and Seven\u2014is worth $4.5 billion over seven years, running until 2031, making it the richest sport rights agreement in Australian history. Annualised, the deal is valued at roughly $643 million per year, with Foxtel paying the larger share.<\/p>\n
By comparison, the NRL\u2019s current broadcast contract (with Nine, Foxtel and Sky NZ) is worth around $2.3 billion over the five years to 2027\u2014or approximately $460 million per year.
The 2027\u20132032 NRL rights cycle is expected to exceed this, with insiders predicting a figure north of $3 billion, driven heavily by streaming expansion and the NRL\u2019s increasingly global ambitions.<\/p>\n
This backdrop makes the Age\u2019s DAZN report particularly sensitive.<\/p>\n
Nine\u2019s Involvement Raises Questions<\/p>\n
The Age is owned by Nine Media, whose parent company, Nine Entertainment, is currently in a tense commercial battle with Foxtel parent-company DAZN over future sports rights.
Some industry figures believe the article may have been designed to influence perceptions heading into the NRL\u2019s 2027 rights negotiations\u2014where Nine, Foxtel\u2013DAZN, Paramount, and Amazon are widely expected to compete.<\/p>\n
Nine and Seven are both facing financial headwinds, prompting speculation about whether they will be able\u2014or willing\u2014to pay more for AFL broadcast rights when renegotiations begin for the 2032\u20132038 cycle.<\/p>\n
The McClure Report<\/p>\n
The original report, authored by The Age\u2019s AFL journalist Sam McClure, relied on two anonymous media industry sources and claimed DAZN was unhappy with its AFL streaming arrangements.<\/p>\n
What the story did not include:<\/p>\n
any direct comment from DAZN<\/p>\n
any direct comment from the AFL<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sam McClure Age Sports Journalist<\/p>\n
comment from Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany, despite Foxtel being the primary partner in the AFL rights deal.<\/p>\n
According to The Australian, McClure emailed DAZN at 5:57am London time, giving the company just over two hours to respond before publishing at 7:57am\u2014prior to the start of the business day.<\/p>\n
DAZN Responds\u2014But The Age Doesn\u2019t Update<\/p>\n
DAZN swiftly issued a blunt public rejection.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe categorically refute any claims we are unhappy with Foxtel\u2019s AFL deal,\u201d a spokesperson said. \u201cWe stand by Foxtel\u2019s commitment to the AFL and fully support continued growth of the partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite receiving the statement, McClure did not add it to the article, though the headline was quietly altered.<\/p>\n
Nine Media has not said whether Nine Entertainment management discussed the story with McClure prior to publication.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Foxtel-Seven-Deal-.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Industry Suspicions Grow<\/p>\n
Some observers believe the unnamed sources may be connected to Nine Entertainment itself\u2014a theory fuelled by the proximity of the report to the upcoming 2027 NRL rights battle.<\/p>\n
The timing also intersects with growing financial pressure on free-to-air networks. Seven and Nine are both wrestling with soft advertising markets and declining linear audiences, raising fears within the AFL that future rights revenue may plateau or even fall after the current record-breaking agreement ends in 2031.<\/p>\n
These concerns are heightened by the limited interest from global streamers such as Apple, Amazon, Google and Paramount, who view AFL as a largely domestic sport offering limited international upside compared with global properties like soccer, the NFL, or UFC.<\/p>\n
DAZN\u2019s Financial Backing Strengthens<\/p>\n
McClure\u2019s article highlighted that DAZN investor Sir Leonard Blavatnik recently injected $891 million into the company following a financial loss.
Access Industries, Blavatnik\u2019s investment vehicle, has poured more than $11 billion into DAZN over the past decade as it expands into major markets\u2014most recently through the Foxtel acquisition.<\/p>\n
Left out of the report was the fact that Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund (PIF) also holds a strategic stake in DAZN, further bolstering its capital position.<\/p>\n
Why DAZN Matters for the NRL<\/p>\n
NRL executives see DAZN as crucial to the league\u2019s global growth strategy. The NRL has big plans for 2027, including nine matches played in major global cities such as London, Dubai and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
Unlike Nine, DAZN already operates a scalable international streaming platform capable of delivering NRL content globally.<\/p>\n
AFL Ratings, Network Pressure & Industry Optics<\/p>\n
The controversy comes as Nine\u2019s domestic ratings continue to weaken.
New data confirms that Seven has outperformed Nine for the fifth straight year, securing a 29.4% audience share in the 2025 ratings year, edging out Nine\u2019s 28.7%.<\/p>\n
ABC (21.5%), Ten (12.6%) and SBS (7.7%) rounded out the field.<\/p>\n
The Age Stands By Its Story<\/p>\n
When contacted by The Australian, Age editor Patrick Elligett defended McClure\u2019s report, saying he remained \u201cconfident in the accuracy of the story\u201d and insisted Foxtel\u2019s position was featured prominently.<\/p>\n
However, as of Sunday evening, McClure\u2019s online article still did not include DAZN\u2019s official statement rejecting the claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Age sports journalist has been left red-faced after publishing an unsubstantiated report claiming that London-based streaming giant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-319426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}