{"id":716389,"date":"2026-06-05T06:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T06:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/716389\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T06:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T06:48:14","slug":"nrl-broadcast-rights-why-peter-vlandys-faces-a-high-stakes-battle-for-a-4-billion-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/716389\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL broadcast rights: Why Peter V\u2019landys faces a high-stakes battle for a $4 billion deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Inside the chairman\u2019s room at Las Vegas\u2019s Allegiant Stadium, billionaire businessman Sir Leonard Blavatnik was welcomed like royalty when he arrived for the NRL double-header there this year.<\/p>\n

With a Steeden ball plonked in his hands, the owner of global sports streamer DAZN was escorted from the ground-level function area out onto the field by Australian Rugby League Commission boss Peter V\u2019landys.<\/p>\n

\"PeterPeter V\u2019landys is aiming to score a record broadcast deal for the NRL. Stephen Kiprillis<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my first time at a rugby league game,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three months later Blavatnik \u2013 a Ukrainian-born British-American tycoon whose net worth is estimated at $US34 billion ($47 billion) by Forbes \u2013 is making his presence felt as bidding for the broadcast rights to the NRL heats up.<\/a><\/p>\n

Foxtel, which was purchased by DAZN last year, has pitched for the game\u2019s entire slate, as has Nine Entertainment, the owner of this masthead, which runs subscription service Stan Sport as well as its free-to-air television channels.<\/p>\n

But experts are warning over the legality of Foxtel\u2019s potential deal and its compliance with Australia\u2019s anti-siphoning legislation, which ensures the public retain access to a certain number of games for free.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems Foxtel is proposing to on-sell the rights to a free-to-air broadcaster partner after acquiring everything which is inconsistent with the spirit of the regime and possibly illegal,\u201d Lachlan Gepp, partner at law firm Hamilton Locke and a sports rights and gambling expert, says.<\/p>\n

The two companies leading the fight are the long-term incumbent NRL rights holders, with Foxtel paying about $270 million a year to show the rights behind its paywall and Nine $130 million a year under the $2 billion arrangement which runs out at the end of the 2027 season.<\/p>\n

V\u2019landys has long set his sights on surpassing the AFL\u2019s seven-year $4.5 billion deal struck in 2022, a high watermark in Australian sport.<\/p>\n

The speculated figure he is chasing is $4 billion, which over the NRL\u2019s usual five-year rights period would amount to $800 million a season.<\/p>\n

Opinions are split on whether he can get anywhere near the magic number, which would require the broadcast partners at least doubling their current outlay in a much weaker advertising market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe $4 billion number is hard to rationalise when you break it down,\u201d Gepp says, with the ad market adding an even bigger mountain. \u201cEven with the current split of rights between broadcasters, that would require Nine to pay $1.3 billion and Foxtel to pay $2.7 billion \u2013 that\u2019s double the highest fee they\u2019ve ever paid for NRL rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

But others believe the competitive tension may result in the price being driven up naturally.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really game on and there is a very good chance that Peter V\u2019landys might just get to what he said he would like to achieve or very close to it,\u201d said Colin Smith, a sports broadcasting expert at Global Media and Sports.<\/p>\n

What helps V\u2019landys\u2019 case have been reports that both Amazon Prime Video and the Seven Network are interested in a slice of the action, giving him the public bidding war he has desperately wanted.<\/p>\n

\"BillionaireBillionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik owns Foxtel\u2019s parent company DAZN.Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is now true competitive rivalry. I was thinking the megadeal wasn\u2019t possible. I think it\u2019s becoming increasingly possible,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

Such a windfall would be a major victory for the game, which has enjoyed unprecedented ratings and crowds despite apathy from players and clubs over controversial rule changes this year that led to blowout scores.<\/p>\n

The issue is what cost it could have for the NRL-watching public.<\/p>\n

Foxtel, through DAZN, and Amazon Prime Video offer V\u2019landys the lure of worldwide exposure, something he has been eager to obtain by taking games to the United States<\/a> and planning a so-called global round with potential matches in cities such as London and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

But industry insiders question whether Australian viewers have the financial appetite for a fragmented rights landscape, as has been the case in the United States with its major sports for decades, particularly if asked to pay for two separate subscription services. Australia\u2019s population is likely too small to sustain the financials of splitting the rights, they also say.<\/p>\n

Should the rights either remain with Kayo or shift to Stan Sport, fans can likely expect a price rise. Stan raised the price of its Sport tier after acquiring the English Premier League rights, while Kayo lifted the price of its Premium tier to $45.99 this year, its second price hike since its new AFL contract kicked in last year.<\/p>\n

In April, a Foxtel spokesperson ruled out introducing ads into its live play coverage in a statement to this masthead.<\/p>\n

As for Amazon Prime, it has more than 5 million Australian subscribers and is part of $2 trillion retail behemoth Amazon, one of the biggest companies in the world.<\/p>\n

But its bare-bones coverage of the men\u2019s and women\u2019s cricket World Cups, which didn\u2019t get cut-through in Australia, is a cautionary tale.<\/p>\n

\"PeterPeter V\u2019landys and departing NRL CEO Andrew Abdo are leading negotiations for the sport.Getty Images<\/p>\n

V\u2019landys said he had three guiding principles \u2013 \u201cthree Ps\u201d in assembling the NRL package.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first one is we\u2019re looking for a partner,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat that means is we want to grow the game \u2013 improve participation with junior football, pathways, women\u2019s rugby league in particular … we want [broadcasters] to really promote the game in all its facets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second point in V\u2019landys\u2019 criteria is the \u201cprice point\u201d for fans. \u201cIn rugby league we pride ourselves on being a game for all \u2026 we don\u2019t want to get the greatest media rights in the world and find out nobody can afford to pay the subscription,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His third P is price \u2013 the overall value of the deal. \u201cNaturally, we want to maximise the amount of money in the rights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The NRL would need to approve the on-selling of coverage by Foxtel to Seven or Network Ten in the event its bid for everything was successful.<\/p>\n

Even so, Foxtel\u2019s offer to buy the full set of rights and then sublicence the required games to a free-to-air broadcaster to satisfy anti-siphoning demands is problematic and raises questions about compliance with that regime, Gepp says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose laws are designed to ensure at least some rights are sold to a free-to-air broadcaster if they want them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The free-to-air rights can only be sold to a pay operator if all TV networks have passed them up, which Nine have not in this case.<\/p>\n

Foxtel bought the rights to all Formula 1 races globally and then shared coverage of the Australian Grand Prix, as the only race on the anti-siphoning list, with Ten. But according to Gepp that analogy \u201cdoesn\u2019t go very far\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat approach might work in a special case where there\u2019s no free-to-air appetite for a sport on the anti-siphoning list, but not for NRL because Nine want the rights for free TV and would be motivated to challenge any non-compliant bid from Foxtel that is designed to cut them out,\u201d Gepp says.<\/p>\n

Foxtel declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Offloading some games to Seven would also risk the NRL playing second fiddle to the AFL, which is already shown by the cash-strapped network and would have to fit it around its schedule.<\/p>\n

That would be a tough pill to swallow for V\u2019landys, who complained about Nine\u2019s Today show promoting the AFL grand final last year but would have little ground to stand on with Seven given its deep-set affiliation with the rival code.<\/p>\n

There is an additional game per round to sell this time with the Perth Bears becoming the competition\u2019s 18th team next year<\/a> \u2013 and eventually a further match with the PNG Chiefs joining in 2028<\/a>. A 20th franchise is also being considered.<\/p>\n

But while there are multiple suitors, two former television executives, speaking on the condition of anonymity, predict the status quo will largely be retained. The difference, one of them forecasts, is that Foxtel will pay a lot more for its slice of the pie, having got a sweetheart deal last time.<\/p>\n

What is clear is how prized an asset the NRL is for Australian broadcasters.<\/p>\n

The grand final was the most watched TV program in Australia last year while last week\u2019s State of Origin thriller was a record, with a total television reach of 5.771 million.<\/p>\n

But the sums behind any deal are complicated as television networks continue to contend with their greatest challenge: getting bang for their buck. While there is something of a viewership renaissance, the ad dollars behind those eyeballs continue to slip away and into the grasp of the likes of Google and Meta. The television sector fell by 25 per cent in April compared to 2025 alone.<\/p>\n

This may explain Nine\u2019s eagerness to take the paid rights too. It knows there is more money to be made through subscriptions and has shown that by investing in Stan Sport.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Peter<\/a><\/p>\n

For Foxtel, which relies more so on subscriptions than advertising, the incentive is clear: not retaining the NRL could prove existential. It drives a major chunk of its Kayo subscriptions and media industry insiders say the economics of its AFL deal only work when you pair it with NRL, too. Losing the NRL would be at its peril, especially considering Blavatnik only bought his new toy 12 months ago. This fact alone is in V\u2019landys\u2019 favour.<\/p>\n

Sweeping job cuts and falling profits show television continuing to head toward its reckoning, but the price of sports broadcast rights is the outlier that continue to deny that trend.<\/p>\n

The colossal cost of having them is greater than it has ever been. The cost of not having them may be even more.<\/p>\n

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\"ChrisChris Barrett<\/a> 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<\/a> or email<\/a>.\"CalumCalum Jaspan<\/a> is a media writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Melbourne. Reach him securely on Signal @calumjaspan.10Connect 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":716390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-716389","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\/716389","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=716389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}