The NRL Just Out-Earned the AFL — Inside the A$5 Billion TV Deal.
Australia’s National Rugby League is about to sign the richest broadcast deal in its history — and for the first time, one worth more than the rival Australian Football League’s. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Nine Entertainment and Foxtel agreed in principle to a new arrangement worth roughly A$5 billion over seven years — about A$700 million a year, or NZ$854 million.
The structure is, on the surface, the status quo: rugby league stays on free-to-air Channel Nine and on Foxtel’s pay-TV and Kayo streaming service. In New Zealand, the Australian Financial Review reports Sky TV is in the box seat to keep the Warriors and the wider competition. What changed is the price. The current deal pays the game about A$400 million a year; the new one nearly doubles that.
This is a sports-business story, told in the numbers: who pays what, what each broadcaster gets, how the deal beats the AFL, and how Peter V’landys — chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission — played a Foxtel takeover attempt and a field of streaming bidders against each other to land it. All figures are in Australian dollars unless labeled otherwise, and the contracts are not yet signed.
- A$5 billion — total value of the new NRL broadcast deal over seven years (NZ$6.1b) — about A$700m a year · Source: NZ Herald / AFR; Sydney Morning Herald
- A$150m / yr — what Nine pays for the free-to-air rights — keeping exclusive State of Origin and the NRL finals · Source: NZ Herald / AFR; Zero Tackle
- ≈ A$500–520m / yr — what Foxtel pays for the subscription tier — Kayo Sports plus 5–6 exclusive matches a week and every regular-season game · Source: NZ Herald / AFR; Sydney Morning Herald
- ≈ A$50m / yr — what a New Zealand broadcaster pays — with Sky TV (NZ) reported as the front-runner to keep the Warriors · Source: NZ Herald / AFR
- Bigger than the AFL — the deal eclipses the AFL's A$4.5b / seven-year contract (~A$643m a year) — the first time NRL rights have out-earned Australian rules · Source: SEN; Ministry of Sport
- Runs to 2034 — the seven-year term starts at the end of the next NRL season and runs through the end of 2034, replacing a deal that expires in 2027 · Source: NZ Herald / AFR; NRL.com
Strip away the negotiating drama and the headline is simple: rugby league stays exactly where fans already watch it, for a lot more money. Channel Nine keeps the free-to-air package — the State of Origin series and the finals, the two events that draw the biggest audiences of the Australian television year. Foxtel and its streaming app Kayo Sports keep every regular-season match, including five or six games a week shown exclusively on pay-TV. In New Zealand, Sky TV is reported to be in the box seat to retain the Warriors and the broader competition.
The total — about A$5 billion across seven years — works out to roughly A$700 million a year, against the current arrangement’s roughly A$400 million. In US dollars, at a mid-2026 exchange rate near 66 cents, the package is worth on the order of $3,300,000,000, or about $460,000,000 a year. The deal was agreed in principle on a Thursday in late June 2026, the Sydney Morning Herald reported; the formal contracts are still to be signed, pending sign-off from the ARL Commission.
The money splits three ways. According to the Australian Financial Review report relayed by the NZ Herald, Foxtel carries the bulk of it — about A$500 million a year for the pay-television and Kayo Sports component (the Sydney Morning Herald put Foxtel’s figure nearer A$520 million). Nine pays about A$150 million a year for the free-to-air rights. And a New Zealand broadcaster — Sky TV the front-runner — pays roughly A$50 million a year, around NZ$61 million.
For Sky, the cost is a meaningful step up. The NZ Herald’s Media Insider column noted Sky is likely to lean on the savings it banked when it lost HBO Max entertainment content — the league rights run perhaps an extra NZ$15 million a year above what it pays now. For Nine, the A$150 million is the price of keeping the crown jewels: Origin and the grand final are the network’s biggest promotional platforms of the year, and analysts have noted Nine’s broader business leans on them.
Rugby league is about to lock in the biggest broadcast deal in the game's history — keeping the NRL on Nine and Foxtel, and growing the value of the code for clubs, players and fans.
The NRL is on the verge of one of the richest broadcast deals in Australian sport — about A$5 billion over seven years, with Nine keeping State of Origin and the finals on free-to-air.
The deal it replaces was struck in December 2021: a five-year agreement worth more than A$2 billion, with Nine, Fox Sports and Sky NZ carrying the Telstra Premiership, the NRLW women’s competition and the Ampol State of Origin series through the end of 2027. The new seven-year deal does not just renew those parties — it roughly doubles the annual value, from about A$400 million a year to about A$700 million.
Three things drove the jump. First, ratings: the 2025 grand final averaged around 4.5 million viewers, the first time rugby league’s showpiece had outdrawn the AFL grand final since 2015, and the Origin opener pulled close to 4 million. Second, expansion: the Perth Bears join as the league’s 18th team in 2027, adding matches — and inventory — to the package. Third, competition for the rights themselves, which is where the real story sits.
2022–2027 (the deal expiring) — five years, more than A$2 billion total (~A$400m a year). Nine, Fox Sports and Sky NZ. Telstra Premiership, NRLW and Ampol State of Origin.
2028–2034 (the new deal) — seven years, about A$5 billion total (~A$700m a year). Nine (free-to-air), Foxtel/Kayo (pay-TV), and a New Zealand broadcaster, Sky the front-runner.
The shift — same broadcast homes, nearly double the annual money, and a package that — if signed — out-earns the AFL for the first time.
The headline number was set up by a power play. Foxtel — bought by the global streaming group DAZN in a deal valued around A$3.4 billion — made an audacious bid to win the entire NRL package and freeze Nine out, sub-licensing a slice of games to a free-to-air partner like Seven or Ten to satisfy the law. DAZN, which streams more than 140,000 live sporting events a year across 200-plus markets, views NRL rights as essential to Kayo’s growth.
That gambit ran into Australia’s anti-siphoning laws, which reserve marquee sporting events for free-to-air television; media-law experts told Mumbrella a pay-TV-only grab was “possibly illegal” without a genuine free-to-air home. With Amazon Prime Video and Paramount also circling, V’landys used the competing bids as leverage — he had publicly targeted a deal near A$4 billion over five years — and landed closer to A$5 billion over seven. Nine kept its free-to-air package; Foxtel kept the pay-TV tier its new owners needed; Channel Seven, which had hoped to gatecrash, walked away with nothing.
“I wouldn't be surprised if we see something in the vicinity of $650 to $700 million a year. The NRL's deal will surpass the AFL's.”
Peter Badel, News Corp rugby league writer, on the NRL's rights target — SEN, June 2026
For decades, the AFL has been the wealthier code, and its 2022 broadcast deal — A$4.5 billion over seven years, about A$643 million a year — was the benchmark Australian sport measured itself against. The new NRL agreement, at roughly A$700 million a year, clears it. If the contracts are signed as reported, rugby league’s broadcast rights will be worth more than Australian rules football’s for the first time, a milestone V’landys has openly chased.
What it means downstream: more money flows to the 17 (soon 18) clubs and to the salary cap that pays players, and the league gets seven years of revenue certainty to bank on. For fans, the practical change is small — the same games on the same screens — but the price of watching matters too: Foxtel and Kayo remain the only way to see every match, so the cost of full access stays behind a paywall even as the league’s riches grow. And in New Zealand, keeping the Warriors on Sky preserves the one place Kiwi fans can follow their team week to week.
Every game, every round — the NRL stays on Fox League and Kayo Sports under the game's new broadcast agreement, including 5–6 exclusive matches a week.
The NRL is set to sign a roughly A$5 billion, seven-year broadcast deal that keeps the game on Nine and Foxtel, brings Sky TV back in for the Warriors in New Zealand, and — if completed — makes rugby league’s rights more valuable than the AFL’s for the first time. The split is about A$500 million a year from Foxtel, A$150 million from Nine, and A$50 million from a New Zealand broadcaster, running from the end of the next season through 2034. The contracts are not yet signed, and the final per-broadcaster figures may move a little when they are. We’ll update this page when the ARL Commission formalizes the deal.
- 1.NZ Herald — Media Insider: 'Sky TV in box seat for \"record\" NRL and Warriors rights deal — part of a massive $A5 billion, seven-year broadcasting agreement,' June 2026 (A$5b total; Foxtel ~A$500m/yr, Nine ~A$150m/yr, NZ broadcaster ~A$50m/yr — citing the AFR report)
- 2.TV Tonight — 'Report: NRL poised for $5b deal with Foxtel, Nine,' June 2026 (Sydney Morning Herald report: Nine and Foxtel agreed in principle on Thursday; deal runs to at least end of 2034)
- 3.Zero Tackle — 'Foxtel, Nine and Seven learn their fate on NRL TV rights,' June 2026 (Nine ~$150m/yr free-to-air keeps Origin + finals; Foxtel ~$520m/yr keeps Kayo + 5–6 exclusive matches; Seven excluded)
- 4.SEN — 'NRL set to surpass AFL with record-breaking TV rights deal,' June 19, 2026 (Peter Badel: deal in the vicinity of $650–700m a year, surpassing the AFL's $4.5b / seven-year contract)
- 5.Mediaweek — 'Foxtel's $4 billion play to freeze Nine out of the NRL,' June 2026 (V'landys targeted ~$4b over five years; DAZN-owned Foxtel sought exclusivity; anti-siphoning sub-licensing to Seven/Ten)
- 6.Ministry of Sport — 'NRL Television Rights War set to reshape Australian media,' 2026 (current deal ~$400m/yr expiring end of 2027; AFL 2022 benchmark $4.5b over seven years; record viewership)
- 7.Mumbrella — 'Foxtel's all-in bid for NRL rights \"possibly illegal\": expert,' 2026 (anti-siphoning law analysis — why a pay-TV-only deal needs a free-to-air partner)
- 8.channelnews — 'What Will Happen To The Nine Network If DAZN, Foxtel & Partner Clean Up All The NRL Rights?,' 2026 (Nine's reliance on Origin/grand-final audiences; market-cap pressure)
- 9.The Desk — 'ESPN, Foxtel renew Australian sports broadcast pact,' Aug. 2025 (DAZN's acquisition of Foxtel; Kayo Sports as the pay-TV growth engine)
- 10.ESPN — 'WA signs $65.6m deal to create new NRL franchise' (Perth Bears confirmed as the NRL's 18th team, entering in 2027 — adding match volume to the rights package)
- 11.NRL.com — 'Explainer: what the broadcast deal means for the game,' Dec. 21, 2021 (the prior five-year, $2b-plus deal with Nine, Fox Sports and Sky NZ running through 2027 — the Telstra Premiership, NRLW and Ampol State of Origin)
- 12.The Aussie Corporate — 'NRL Chases Record TV Rights Shake-Up,' June 2026 (bidder field including Amazon Prime Video and Paramount; V'landys leveraging competitive tension)
Last updated June 26, 2026