NRL chief executive Peter V'landys has issued a stark warning to broadcasters Channel Nine and Foxtel, stating that the league will sell its television rights to a rival network if the pair collude to drive down the price in upcoming negotiations.
The current five-year, $1.7 billion rights deal with Nine and Foxtel expires in 2027. Negotiations for a new agreement are set to begin after the Ashes Test series in November, and V'landys has made it clear he will not accept a joint bid from the two companies.
“If they collude, it will be at their peril,” V'landys told the Australian Financial Review. “We will take the rights elsewhere. If they think they can behave as monopolists, they will be in for a shock.”
V'landys is confident the next deal will be even more lucrative, citing a doubling of the NRL's audience since the last agreement. He emphasised the importance of sport to free-to-air broadcasters, which face growing competition from streaming services like Paramount, Amazon, and Netflix.
“Free-to-air television needs sport more than ever,” V'landys said. “It’s all news, sport, and reality TV. It needs sport for the future of the business.”
The NRL grand final this weekend could outrate the AFL decider for the first time in a decade, with preliminary final viewership up 35% on last year. The AFL grand final attracted 4.18 million viewers on Seven, surpassing Nine's State of Origin coverage as the year's most-watched program.
