Sports remain critical for both FTA and Pay TV. We believe that Nine has the greatest capacity to pay for rights and will retain its NRL contract, albeit with lower inflation than Seven and Ten will face as they chase AFL rights. We expect Foxtel to retain its Pay rights (possibly increasing its tally of NRL games per week).

Sports rights are already the biggest cost for networks, and this cost will only increase given the importance of sports to delivering live audience reach. While other genres wax and wane in importance, programmers can invest in sports with some certainty that what was popular last year will remain popular next year (and beyond). And at a time when there is much discussion around the evolution of the TV ecosystem, this next cycle of rights negotiations is critical. This note assesses the global and local trends for sports rights.