Australian incumbent Telstra has signed a deal with the National Rugby League (NRL) worth AU$90 million (US$70.6 million) over six years. The deal, which includes AU$60 million in cash, allows Telstra to keep naming rights to the NRL for the next six years as well as having exclusive rights to show footage from games on the internet and mobile phones. This latter bit took some doing, since the TV broadcaster that the NRL sold TV rights to believed it also had the rights for the footage online and mobile. However after negotiations the new deal means that “Channel Nine, which broadcasts NRL on free-to-air television, and Foxtel, which screens the code on pay-TV, cannot show more than 30seconds of game footage on their websites”.
Telstra also has the online and mobile rights for the Australian Football League (AFL) for five years, which cost AU$60 million, and a six-year deal with the V8 Supercars, which cost AU$20 million.