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Just moments after Tuesday’s press conference confirming a deal to broadcast the NRL at Moore Park, Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delaney jumped into a car to be driven to Sydney Airport.
Over the past few weeks, Delaney has tried several times to get to Europe, where his family is vacationing. But negotiations over the rights dragged on. Finally, at exactly 12.30pm on Tuesday, the heads of two major media companies and the NRL sat down to announce the deal.
Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter W’Landys leads (from left) Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delaney, Nine boss Matt Stanton and outgoing NRL chief Andrew Abdo to a press conference.Dominic Lorrimer
The NRL’s record seven-year, $5.3 billion deal with Foxtel and Nine Entertainment, the owner of the cap, came after months of back-and-forth, often tense negotiations that went all the way to the end.
Terms of the contract were still being negotiated late on Monday and it was only before Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys appeared in front of cameras along with Delaney, Nine chief Matt Stanton and outgoing NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo that documents were printed and signed upstairs in the boardroom at code headquarters.
“We didn’t get here the hard way. (There were) some very serious meetings, to say the least. So much so that I was in and out of the head assessment box several times over the course of 11 days, but I came back early with a doctor’s note,” V’landys said, jokingly referencing the NRL’s concussion protocols to make his point.
The huge deal, which will come into effect in 2028, will see the NRL likely expand to 20 teams by 2029, giving members an extra two games per round. It includes NRLV. And it could ultimately raise the NRL salary cap from $12 million per team to $20 million, meaning a significant increase in player wages.
This would put the NRL ahead of the AFL as owners of the richest sports broadcast deal in Australian history, which is V’landys’ personal ambition.
The powerful administrator cemented his reputation as a tough negotiator during a protracted process in which longtime operators Foxtel and Nine bid for the full range of rights and new entrant Amazon Prime Video threw its hat into the ring.
Major tech companies like Amazon have invested in live sports streaming.AP
The battle for rights consumed the rivals, as well as V’landys and Abdo, as it neared the finish line.
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Foxtel’s Artarmon offices, owned by global streamer DAZN, had a war room set up on the fifth floor and executives and lawyers had worked through the night on several occasions in recent weeks to set up sofas for sleeping in parts of the building where there was least light.
A similar midnight oil burn occurred at Nine, where the heavy lifting was led by head of streaming and broadcasting Amanda Lang, a former ARL Commission member, with Stanton and chairman Peter Tona being key figures in discussions with the league.
While Delaney may have been trying to get to Europe, Nine executives had a lot on their plate, including organizing the departure Today presenter Karl Stefanovich.
V’landys said the presence of Amazon, which sought games on Fridays, changed the course of negotiations, increasing competitive tensions, but sticking with the existing broadcasters was “better for the game and… better for the fans.” Amazon has been contacted for comment.
The deal, which would see Foxtel pay about $520 million a year and Nine about $150 million a year, was 90 percent all about the money, V’landys said.
But he admitted there were other conditions the NRL wanted: “we drove really hard.”
These included holding the NRL draw, which was traditionally organized by broadcasters who chose which matches they wanted each week.
Over the past decade, scheduling has become more of a joint effort between the NRL and the media companies broadcasting the games. The NRL will take full control.
The agreement also includes clauses on how Foxtel and Nine will cover the NRL.
“There are certain commitments at the partnership level in the agreements and we make no apologies for that because we want to portray the game in as positive a way as possible to attract new audiences and both of our partners are committed to doing that,” V’landys said.
The Bulldogs’ Stephen Crichton welcomes fans to Las Vegas as part of Peter V’landys’ bid to take the game to a global level.Getty Images
Another major development in the negotiations was Foxtel’s attempt to secure the rights to simulcast the sport’s biggest events: the State of Origin series and the NRL grand final.
They regularly become the most-watched events on Australian television, with interstate clashes attracting more than 4 million viewers on Channel Nine.
Federal anti-siphoning laws require State of Origin and the grand final to be broadcast free of charge, but Foxtel was keen to get in on the action.
This would be a deal breaker for Nine, which had insisted on keeping the premier matches exclusively, as well as three NRL games per round.
“Look, Fox (and its owners) DAZN naturally wanted to have a State of Origin and a grand final,” V’landys said.
“The way it worked out was that we wanted it to be exclusively on Nine, to give Nine that exclusive content, and that was part of the commercial negotiations,” he said. “We’re trying to find the right balance and we believe we have it.”
Foxtel will show every other game and have six and eventually seven games when a 20th team is added to the NRL, following the Perth Bears in 2027 and the Australian Government-backed PNG Chiefs in 2028.
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The subscription company is paying big money for the privilege: its annual costs will almost double compared to the current deal, while Nine’s fee will rise marginally for its package, which will remain the same.
Asked how Foxtel could afford this without increasing costs for viewers, Delaney said he was betting on subscriber growth, arguing the parties had “agreed on affordability”.
Exactly what mechanisms are in place in the agreement to protect fans’ pockets is not specified, but V’landys cited his past to reassure them.
“I’m a migrant child from Wollongong. I never forgot my roots and made sure the price was protected,” he said.
“Of course, it’s commercially sensitive. But all I know is that DAZN is a brilliant partner. They’re professionals. They honor their word, and this is no different.”
V’landys wants to set aside some of the funds from the rights deal for a rainy day, wanting to increase the game’s asset base from $400 million to $1 billion.
But his main goal is to take the game international, and the cornerstone of that is a more lucrative partnership with Foxtel.
The NRL has begun overseeing season-opening matches in Las Vegas and is also exploring the possibility of staging further matches overseas as part of a mooted global round he would like to begin as early as next year.
V’landys hopes to use the global reach of DAZN, which is owned by Ukrainian-born British-American billionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik and has tens of millions of subscribers, to expand the sport’s popularity abroad.
Like former Super League chief John Ribot’s dream in the 1990s to bring the game to China, he is thinking big.
Ribot’s dream did not come true, but V’landys is confident in his will.
“We have one chance to globalize the game and we are going to do it,” he said. “Who said there won’t be a team from Europe in the NRL in 2050?
“Why aren’t there any from America, with the changes in transportation, the changes in technology? The world is our oyster. You have to look at all of this.”
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Chris Barrett is a senior sports reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former South East Asia correspondent for the Herald and The Age.Connect via X or e-mail.
Kishore Napier-Raman is a senior business columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He previously worked as a columnist and CBD reporter for the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery.Connect via X or e-mail.