A fourth free-to-air match, on Saturday nights, is one of the key battleground issues in National Rugby League TV rights talks, "which have accelerated fast," according to Paul Malone of the Brisbane COURIER-MAIL. Three free-to-air NRL games a week "are now screened by the Nine Network, with commercial networks to lobby hard for a live Saturday night game." This "could be the timeslot for a second free-to-air network for rugby league which misses out on the Friday night properties and rights to the all-important State of Origin series." Fox Sports, which presently broadcasts all Saturday NRL content in most weeks, "would have to pay a premium price to keep all matches on that day exclusively." One central issue with the NRL rights "has become whether one network will be able to afford to buy all free-to-air rights." Industry analysts said that the NRL could expect to receive at least A$1.5B ($1.1B) for a five-year term, up from its current A$1.025B ($805M). Another matter central to these talks "is the ownership of the Ten network." NRL CEO David Smith confirmed last week that "the rights for different timeslots each round and the plum State of Origin matches could be divided between networks and won by the highest bidder" (COURIER-MAIL, 5/5).
