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Nine Network came to the brink of losing its megabucks NRL deal after Karl Stefanovic hosted a controversial guest on his podcast.
The broadcaster had forked out plenty of cash to retain the rights to showcase footy on their free-to-air channels.
The £5.3 billion broadcast deal keeps the NRL on Nine Network Nine, Foxtel and Sky NZ from 2028 for seven years, which is when the PNG Chiefs will join the competition after the addition of the Perth Bears in 2027.
But it came perilously close to losing everything thanks to a trip overseas and its spat with Stefanovic.
As negotiations with the ARL reached a head, with Nine under pressure due to DAZN’s desire to work with other networks, Stefanovic decided to have Tommy Robinson on his podcast.
The controversial British far-right activist has reached infamy for his views on immigration among other issues in the UK.
Karl Stefanovic’s decision to have Tommy Robinson on his podcast threw NIne’s deal with the NRL into jeopardy
Matt Stanton had also been overseas, enjoying the atmosphere of the Royal Box on Wimbledon’s Centre Court
NRL decision makers were said to have been less than impressed with Stefanovic’s decision and were reconsidering their options
That decision by Stefanovic diverted the attention of the Nine executives, and it also caused issues within Rugby League Central.
It is believed that his decision to bring Robinson on the pod went down terribly, given the state of negotiations at the time.
Decision-makers within the NRL were then left to reconsider their options with Nine with other offers on the table.
To make matters worse, chief executive Matt Stanton was soaking up the atmosphere in the Royal Box at Wimbledon as things were falling apart.
It has been reported that the intervention of Nine chair Peter Tonagh was needed in order to save the deal.
In fact, NRL boss Peter V’landys confirmed that negotiations were running late into the night as all sides attempted to thrash out a deal with Amazon also looking to sign the rights.
DAZN had made it clear that they wanted to simulcast State of Origin and the grand final, and that their preference was Seven or Ten ahead of Nine.
Without Tonagh stepping in, it seemed as though one of those broadcasters executives would have been at a press conference celebrating the deal instead of Stanton.
Seven posed a particular threat to Nine having signalled their intent by obtaining the rights to the Rugby World Cup to be played in Australia later this year.
In the end Nine were able to overcome all the obstacles they had put in their own way to secure the deal with Stanton returning just in time to join the press conference.
‘Fox and DAZN naturally wanted to have the State of Origin and the grand final,’ V’landys said.
‘However, the way it worked out is we wanted it exclusively on Nine to provide Nine with that exclusive content and that’s part of the commercial negotiation.
‘As I said, Patrick was very good about it. We tried to get the right balance and we believe we got the right balance.’
Nine will pay the NRL $145 million annually over the seven-year agreement in cash, offset by $10 million in committed annual advertising spend by the NRL and a further $15 million to be provided.
The free-to-air broadcaster also has rights to the Women’s State of Origin, three live NRL matches each week, 33 NRLW matches, men’s and women’s Test matches played in Australia and the NRL and NRLW Finals Series.
