David Gallop, the chief executive of the Australian Rugby League Commission, which is responsible for brokering the next cycle of domestic rights for the country’s National Rugby League, said that last week’s Federal Court ruling against telco Optus had come at a crucial time during rights negotiations.
The commission’s window of exclusive talks with the league’s current rights-holders, commercial broadcaster Channel Nine and pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports, will expire on Tuesday, May 1, allowing commercial broadcasters Seven and Ten to enter the running for the rights. The next deal will cover five seasons, from 2013 to 2017.
“It means we can go into our round of negotiations knowing our content is ours to sell,” Gallop said, according to the Australian newspaper. “This decision says ‘this is what sports have to sell and they own the copyright within it.’ We now need to maximise the value of that not only for the elite rugby league clubs and players in the game but for the investment into grassroots.”
On Friday, Australia’s Federal Court ruled against Optus by upholding an appeal by the NRL, the Australian Football League, the governing body for Aussie rules in the country, and their online rights partner, the Telstra telco. Following the court ruling, Optus has been forced to suspend its TV Now mobile re-broadcast service, which allowed subscribers to watch near-live sports programmes originally broadcast on free-to-air television with a short time delay.