The National Rugby League’s battle with Fox Sports over the next broadcast rights deal "could intensify" after club CEOs were told that "the code could go with a non-traditional partner for its digital media rights in a worst-case scenario," according to Stuart Honeysett of THE AUSTRALIAN. Most of the game’s CEOs were at Rugby League Central in Sydney on Tuesday "for a two-day conference to discuss a range of issues." A source said, "The gist of it was that if you control the content then you have the product that drives everything. No one’s saying that they’re going to do it, but the presentation showed that in a few years time there will be these new players coming into the market, and they’re other platforms that you can sell viewing information, interviews, everything." The NRL recently signed a A$925M ($651M) deal with free-to-air broadcaster Channel Nine "for the next broadcast rights deal." But "it is still to negotiate with Fox Sports and naming sponsor Telstra over the remaining content and digital rights." The NRL "is still banking on Fox Sports" to pay A$750M-A$850M for four exclusive games and the right to simulcast Nine’s matches but negotiations "have stalled with reports the pay-TV operator believes the games it is expected to bid for have been severely devalued." The NRL organized for former officials from the Australian Football League and Cricket Australia "to make a presentation which showed that the game had a number of options to sell its digital media rights." It is believed while the officials told club bosses they were in a strong position to grow the value of their digital media rights, they "needed to work hard now if they wanted to achieve maximum value for them with a non-traditional partner" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 9/2).