![\"Leigh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AM10591.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Leigh Leopards\u2019 owner Derek Beaumont has offered an update on the status of the next broadcast deal and how it could look, whilst maintaining that the NRL need Super League.<\/p>\n
The Leopards\u2019 owner has spoken in a video shared to the Leigh YouTube channel, with the video understood to have been recorded prior to last Friday\u2019s play-off loss. It\u2019s also believed that the video was recorded before a late-notice meeting was held between NRL kingmaker Peter V\u2019landys and the 14 Super League clubs, after which it\u2019s been reported that 12 of the 14 clubs, including Leigh, were supportive of the NRL proposition.<\/p>\n
Comments made in Leigh\u2019s YouTube video<\/a> are to the contrary with Beaumont going as far as to state himself as an \u2018absolute no\u2019 to the deal that was on the table at the time, but when contacted by Serious About Rugby League, the club confirmed that Beaumont\u2019s stance on the NRL situation is the same as in the interview.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot to unpack from the hour-long video with a good portion dedicated to the NRL deal and the broadcast deal, both of which cross over a lot. Here are the key talking points.<\/p>\n Red card stupidity, Willie Peters\u2019 legacy, and Super League Grand Final predictions \u2013 Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n Leigh Leopards\u2019 owner calls on Super League+ to become leading platform<\/p>\n The major focus for Beaumont was the TV deal with the Leigh owner maintaining that without Sky Sports, Super League would not be what it is, though he did claim that rugby league is \u2018significantly undervalued\u2019.<\/p>\n He also expressed disappointment at the coverage of the games on the red button, something many will agree with him upon, before asserting that Super League as an entity needs to make more use of Super League+ \u2013 their own paid subscription streaming channel.<\/p>\n Most Read on Serious About Rugby League<\/p>\n Beaumont said: \u201cI\u2019ve been a big advocate of Super League+, of having our own ownership of our game in time. I\u2019ve said that we should create the competitive tension with Sky\u2026 they don\u2019t know what 14 owners and the RFL and RL Commercial are plotting or capable of, so we should be building that up.\u201d<\/p>\n He also seemed to confirm previous reports that from 2027 onward, Sky Sports will take three games per week with the remaining four up for tender, and he\u2019s advocated for Super League+, and not any NRL partner, to be the home of the remaining four games.<\/p>\n The Leigh owner said: \u201cI\u2019ve got masses of ideas of how to grow Super League+ as being a go-to place for rugby league fans and then where that wins and what it delivers is in three years time, that will have got so good and have so many people that we will determine how much we give our games away for, if [we give] any [game away].<\/p>\n \u201cThat for me is the winning part of this deal with Sky. We\u2019ve got the security of their money, that we\u2019ve always had, nothing has changed and we\u2019ve got that piece for three years but we\u2019ve got that opportunity to create something special with four games that we can grow and increase as we get better and better with it.\u201d<\/p>\n A big argument in favour of that was to avoid \u2018selling ourselves short to somebody on the other side of the world who would show us through a different platform and kind of buy us with your own money and take equity that when they walk away from, they could end up owning half of our game\u2019.<\/p>\n NRL offer assessed<\/p>\n Of course, he was talking about the NRL in that final comment, with the initial offer of investment made to RL Commercial believed to have seen the NRL take an extra 10% share of Super League for each of the five years they invest in the competition.<\/p>\n Speaking about his skepticism of the NRL, Beaumont said: \u201cWhat was being said and what was being put out there looked to me like a methodical plan to undermine Super League, how it looked, it\u2019s value, and then they kind of came at it with no real offers.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was nothing really to comment on but that changed recently where an offer was made that I wouldn\u2019t term an offer, simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n Beaumont would go on to confirm that the offer in question changed to an offer that \u2018looked to good to be true\u2019, before stating that there would be a call that afternoon at short notice to discuss. It\u2019s believed that call is the call that has seen outlets such as\u00a0inews<\/a> report that 12 of the 14 Super League teams backed the NRL plan, with Leigh understood to be among them.<\/p>\n Despite that, the Leopards owner said in the video: \u201cAs it stands, I\u2019m an absolute no. I\u2019ve just said to you about Super League+, that\u2019s our future. That\u2019s where this game grows significantly and can do it\u2019s own decent deal.\u201d<\/p>\n Why the NRL needs Super League, as Derek Beaumont outlines stance<\/p>\n He\u2019d go on to explain that Super League has suddenly become more valuable to the NRL because their own TV deal, which was agreed earlier this year, now relies on Super League as part of the collection for their European broadcast partner DAZN.<\/p>\n Using the analogy of a car collection, Beaumont has now suggested that Super League has \u2018become the most valuable car in that collection, even though it probably isn\u2019t\u2019, because of the fact the NRL want Super League rights for their own broadcast deal.<\/p>\n He argued: \u201cWe need to use that strength to either get a deal that is too good to be true, where we\u2019re determining what we get and not the NRL dealing with a broadcaster and then telling us what we get out of it.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s how I see it and until that changes, I certainly won\u2019t be voting for it and I know others that won\u2019t either. It won\u2019t grow legs and get there unless it significantly changes but it\u2019s coming to a dead end of time and we need to call that literally as soon as today because otherwise we\u2019re going to lose our ground on getting Super League+ to where it needs to be.\u201d<\/p>\n As referenced throughout, the aforementioned call has taken place and was believed to be met with overwhelming positivity, though when contacted for comment, Leigh maintained that their owner holds the same views on the NRL as expressed in their latest video. That video can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790199493_324_srl-logo.png\"\/){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards\u2019 owner Derek Beaumont has offered an update on the status of the next broadcast deal and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-780360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}