Show Notes
Inside Story: How did the NRL land a record $5 billion TV rights deal with Nine and DAZN—and how serious was Amazon's rival bid?
In this episode of Moneyball: The Business of Sport, host Scott Keenan sits down with Sam Buckingham-Jones, media and marketing reporter at the Australian Financial Review, to go behind the story of one of the biggest sports media negotiations Australia has ever seen.
For months, Sam was one of the journalists leading coverage of the NRL media rights negotiations, following every twist and turn as Nine, DAZN, Amazon and other broadcasters considered the future of rugby league on television and streaming.
The result was a record $5 billion NRL broadcast deal that surpassed the AFL's landmark $4.5 billion media rights agreement—yet ultimately kept the game's existing major broadcast partners in place.
So how did we get here?
Scott and Sam explore why the NRL, Nine and DAZN all had so much at stake; how serious Amazon's bid really was; whether the NRL could have accepted more money by splitting its rights; and how a negotiation in which broadcasters reportedly wanted everything ultimately ended with a familiar broadcast structure.
They also discuss why beating the AFL's media rights benchmark mattered to Peter V'landys, whether Kayo and Foxtel subscription prices could rise, the prospect of NRL content creators getting access to game footage and highlights, and some of the biggest questions still unanswered about the new deal.
At the heart of the conversation is a simple idea: the NRL, Nine and DAZN all had something significant to lose—and that mutual dependence helped shape one of the biggest deals in Australian sport.
Moneyball: The Business of Sport is the show for sports insiders and fans who want to understand not just what's happening in sport, but why it's happening. Because if you want to know what's really going on in sport, you've got to follow the money.
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You can read more of Sam's excellent coverage of stories like this at www.AFR.com.
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