THE NRL’s current TV contracts with Channel Nine and Foxtel expire at the end of the 2026 season, but already NRL chairman Peter V’landys is planning to enter negotiations for the next phase of the competition’s broadcasting rights from the 2027 season.
V’landys has reportedly set a mid-year deadline for finalising the league’s next broadcast deal.
He believes the NRL is in a strong position for four reasons – strong viewing figures, more potential broadcasters coming to the market, the expansion of the competition from 17 clubs to 18 or 19 before the end of the decade and the variety of content the NRL can offer, which includes the season opener in Las Vegas, State of Origin and the NRLW.
The next deal is likely to be highly lucrative, but it could also be multi-faceted, given that traditional media is suffering from Australia’s weakening advertising market and with the federal government considering whether to ban gambling advertising during major sporting events, which would inevitably hit advertising revenue.
V’landys has been buoyed by the fact that even in an Olympic year the NRL still managed four of the top five rating programmes on free-to-air TV for 2024, while Fox Sports reported a record number of viewers for NRL games last year.
He told Code Sports that negotiations are set to begin in the coming months.
“We will be negotiating the rights this year,” he said.
“They don’t start until 2027 but you need to give yourself a couple of years’ lead time.
“We hope to have something done in the middle of this year.
“We have got the most valuable rights in Australian sport. Last year we were the most viewed sport in Australia.”
The NRL has revealed that 35,000 tickets have now been sold for next month’s kick-off in Las Vegas.
That figure includes about 8,000 tickets sold by Wigan and Warrington.
