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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Leading club bosses have backed departing NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo to deliver the game a record broadcast deal before signing off on what has been described as the \u201clongest and strongest legacy\u201d of any CEO in the NRL era.<\/p>\n Less than 24 hours after confirming his shock code-switch to take charge as Tennis Australia CEO<\/a>, the NRL\u2019s current rights holders Nine, publishers of this masthead, and DAZN-owned Foxtel sought and were given assurances that Abdo would still lead key broadcast negotiations this week.<\/p>\n Broadcasters, including Channel Seven, Nine and Foxtel, will begin presentations to the NRL on Tuesday. ARL Commission chair Peter V\u2019landys has long targeted a $4 billion, five-year deal that would trump the AFL\u2019s last broadcast contracts.<\/p>\n The AFL negotiated a record-breaking $4.5 billion, seven-year deal in a significantly healthier advertising market four years ago, blowing the NRL out of the water in the process.<\/p>\n The Australian Financial Review reported on Monday that global subscription service Amazon is planning to submit an offer to the NRL<\/a>, a move which would help create the competitive tension needed to drive up rival offers.<\/p>\n Abdo will stay on as NRL chief executive until July 15 and V\u2019landys stressed repeatedly during a Monday press conference that the game\u2019s broadcast deal beyond 2027 will ideally be wrapped up before Abdo departs.<\/p>\n South Sydney chairman Nick Pappas backed Abdo and V\u2019landys to \u201ctick off that last box because they\u2019ve ticked every other box on their list, and the clubs have absolute confidence in them.\u201d<\/p>\n Raiders CEO Don Furner, the longest-serving club boss in the game, said that \u201cif anyone\u2019s going to get that [record] deal done, it\u2019s Peter and Andrew\u201d, while Melbourne chairman Matt Tripp predicted the NRL\u2019s run of record TV ratings would translate into the cash windfall V\u2019landys has regularly foreshadowed.<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s Broncos-Storm grand final \u2013 watched by a record audience of 4.46 million<\/a> \u2013 was the highest rating in NRL history and trumped the AFL\u2019s Lions-Cats decider (4.18 million viewers) a week earlier.<\/p>\n The NRL reported a 9.5 per cent increase in total viewership in 2025, figures which the governing body says have been replicated so far this season with the State of Origin series \u2013 regularly one of the highest-rating broadcasts on Australian TV \u2013 set to off on Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cI think if you go purely on the numbers, and the fact we have two new clubs coming in during this broadcast deal, then we have to do better than that of the AFL,\u201d Tripp said.<\/p>\n \u201cPurely on viewership and the growth in the game over the course of the last few years of the broadcast deal, then I think everyone would be disappointed if we didn\u2019t do better than the current AFL deal.<\/p>\n A lot of that comes down to the moves made during Andrew\u2019s tenure. A lot of those moves took courage and it\u2019s been an ambitious time for the game.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople were sceptical about [the NRL\u2019s season-opening ventures in] Las Vegas, and it\u2019s worked. There\u2019s scepticism around expansion, and I think both Perth and PNG have great prospects\u2026 I think as a whole, the game is in a much better place over the past six years under Andrew\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n \u201cWith no disrespect to anyone else who has been CEO, I think he leaves the longest and strongest legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n Sharks CEO Dino Mezzatesta lauded Abdo for \u201cnurturing the relationship with clubs that is now in a much better position\u201d than when he took charge from predecessor Todd Greenberg in early 2020, a sentiment echoed by Pappas.<\/p>\n Privately, multiple club bosses contacted by this masthead said it would not surprise if V\u2019landys pushed to take charge of the game as an executive chairman<\/a>, a move which would require a change to the ARLC constitution.<\/p>\n Related Article Rabbitohs chief Blake Solly and Broncos counterpart Dave Donaghy have both been touted as potential contenders to replace Abdo should the status quo CEO position remain.<\/p>\n Having seen club and NRL bosses emerge from both within the game and be parachuted in during his 19 years in charge at Canberra, Furner believes a rugby league background is essential for the game\u2019s top position.<\/p>\n \u201cI think you certainly have to know sport, and I think it helps to know rugby league,\u201d he said. \u201cYou could be the CEO of a big successful business and get eaten alive in our business. I\u2019ve seen people from outside the sport come into rugby league and get a rude shock, so I\u2019d stress that it really helps to know rugby league.\u201d <\/p>\n News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/e5cc974c459b21be0ad7454a7dd903f1ca0163cd.jpeg\")
Andrew Abdo and Peter V\u2019landys at a press conference on Monday.Steven Siewert<\/p>\n![\"Brisbane\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/3b8da74154230a46bad2f2c67bf9f387c1f85462.jpeg\")
Brisbane\u2019s Payne Haas in action during the 2025 grand final.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779739814_436_616c4faff774cd53abacaef910ff75a243eb54d83a78bfdbe271e5f1ba1f0f91.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Dan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773949213_774_c6acc0581c14a7477781e092516e1810bef13f2c.png\")
Dan Walsh<\/a> is a sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-694182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694182","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=694182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}