With the Rugby League Ashes now wrapped up and Australia reigning supreme over the English, attention has shifted squarely to what could become the most lucrative broadcast rights battle in Australian sport.
Formal negotiations for the post-2027 NRL seasons are set to begin over the coming weeks and months, with the league’s $2 billion deal with Nine and Foxtel entering its final years, and every major network circling.
ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys set the tone months ago, declaring that the NRL’s next deal would be “record-breaking” and insisting that the code’s growth, audience expansion and new team additions, the Perth Bears and PNG Chiefs by decade’s end, would justify it.
“The deal will be record-breaking because we built the game up and doubled our audience,” V’landys said earlier this year, noting that the NRL’s revenue had climbed to $744 million under the current agreement.
But he also warned that money alone wouldn’t dictate the outcome. “Money will not be the first priority,” he said, stressing that fans shouldn’t lose more games to subscription or premium streaming services. And in a pointed message to broadcasters, he added: “If they collude [over rights deals] it will be at their peril. We will take the rights elsewhere. If they think they can behave as monopolists, they will be in for a shock.”
Now, with Seven, Nine, Ten, and a handful of global streamers preparing their pitches, that “elsewhere” could be becoming a reality.
Seven Network
The first major player to make a move was Seven, having swooped in to secure exclusive Australian rights to the 2026 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2026). The $12 million deal, modest compared to the NRL’s billion-dollar contracts, is widely seen as a strategic test run for a larger play.
The tournament will air live and free on Seven and 7Plus from 15 October to 15 November 2026, beginning with a blockbuster between Australia and New Zealand at Allianz Stadium. It will feature 18 men’s, 15 women’s and 20 wheelchair matches, with additional games in Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.
“Seven is proud to be the unrivalled home of Australian sport,” said managing director and CEO Jeff Howard. “The Rugby League World Cup is a significant world-class event, and hosting it on home soil makes it even more special. It’s exactly the kind of premium sporting content Seven is known for and committed to delivering – live, free and exclusively to all Australians.”
Seven’s director of sport, Chris Jones, described the deal as part of a broader ambition. “To broadcast RLWC2026 to Australians across the country builds on our dedication to providing exceptional live and free sport programming 365 days of the year.”
The network will also launch a new rugby league panel show, The Agenda Setters: Rugby League, in early 2026, a move widely viewed as groundwork for a potential long-term relationship with the code.
Reports suggest Seven may also bid for the rights to Monday Night Football should the NRL revive the timeslot. Because the AFL does not schedule games on Mondays, Seven could broadcast NRL Monday fixtures on its main channel without clashing with AFL coverage, giving it a foothold in the rugby league market while maintaining its AFL dominance.
Still, that dominance poses the biggest question: with both codes running parallel through winter, it’s hard to imagine how Seven could give equal attention, marketing and airtime to the AFL and NRL simultaneously.
Nine Network
For the NRL’s long-time broadcast partner, the stakes could not be higher. Nine and Foxtel currently hold the rights under a $2 billion deal that runs through the 2027 season, but V’landys has made it clear there will be no mates’ rates this time.
Nine’s position is complicated by its recent expansion into global football. The network has picked up Premier League and FA Cup rights, high-value, year-round content that adds scheduling pressure and increases costs. Still, Nine’s deep ties to rugby league through its flagship programs and State of Origin coverage make it a formidable contender.
As part of any renewed deal, B&T understands that Nine might push for more exclusivity on its streaming platform Stan, which it sees as key to retaining sports audiences in the digital era.
Network Ten / Paramount
Once a powerhouse in NRL coverage, Ten is now the wildcard. The network’s financial woes have been widely documented, losing $322 million in 2023 and $162 million last year, but its new American ownership under Paramount Skydance may change the game.
President Beverley McGarvey has confirmed that Ten will at least consider a bid. “Like we do with every sport, we will look at it tactically,” she said.
Ten could also be a more natural fit than Seven, given its existing portfolio. It already holds rights to the A-Leagues and NBL, both summer competitions, meaning the NRL would slot neatly into its broadcast calendar without much overlap. Paramount+ also gives Ten an established streaming platform that could support a hybrid model of free-to-air and subscription content.
McGarvey pointed to Skydance’s deep pockets and appetite for sport. “We’d be silly to not even look at it. Skydance have just dropped $US7.7 billion [$11.8 billion] on the UFC, and that includes the Australian rights, which we’re thrilled about. And as a global business, they have made really material content investments recently”.
Analysts agree Ten’s lack of tier-one sports rights is its biggest vulnerability, but also its biggest incentive. Ten’s future then hinges on whether it can convince advertisers, and V’landys, that it’s back in the big-league game.
Foxtel / DAZN
While much of the spotlight is on free-to-air contenders, Foxtel’s $3.4 billion sale to DAZN, the global “Netflix of sports”, has transformed the pay-TV landscape. The merged business gives Foxtel greater access to global streaming technology and subscriber reach, positioning it strongly for the next NRL cycle.
However, V’landys’ emphasis on accessibility suggests any new deal will require balance. “Our preferred position is to have free-to-air games on one free-to-air channel and all subscription games on one streamer,” he told The Australian.
Foxtel’s Kayo remains the dominant sports streamer in Australia, and its new DAZN ownership could open the door to greater international distribution of Australian rugby league content.
Global Streamers
Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are also hovering at the edges of Australia’s sports broadcast wars. Netflix paid around $240 million to broadcast the NFL’s Christmas Day games last year, marking its first major step into live sport, while Prime Video already holds exclusive ICC cricket rights until 2027 and has shown interest in rugby content abroad.
Both streamers are seen as potential partners for the NRL in supplementary or digital rights, particularly for behind-the-scenes, documentary-style content or global simulcasts, rather than full domestic broadcast packages.
Still, their growing appetite for live sport adds competitive tension to V’landys’ negotiation table and could push traditional broadcasters to pay more.
When the rights negotiations do formally commence, V’landys will be sure to play each network off the other. Whether the final agreement breaks records or not is still to be determined but one thing is clear: the fight for rugby league’s media future has well and truly kicked off, and the waters have never been muddier.
