The Rugby Football League are reportedly keen to entice DAZN to enter the bidding war for Super League’s broadcast rights from the start of the 2027 season.
The governing body, led by RL Commercial, will attempt to lock in a fresh and increased broadcast deal for the competition before the existing arrangement with Sky Sports expires at the end of next year.
Sky, who have shown Super League since the competition’s inception in 1996, are heavy favourites to retain the rights and it would still rank as a major surprise were they not given the deal.
But with the value of Sky’s offering dwindling in recent years – the game gets around half of what it did before the Covid-19 pandemic, currently in the region of £21million – the RFL are keen to explore alternative options.
And now a fresh report from City AM has suggested that DAZN chief executive Shay Segev was present at the Ashes opener between England and Australia on Saturday, something already reported by media in Australia.
Interestingly, the report says that the RFL are working on convincing Segev and DAZN that they should also bid for TV rights for Super League, with the process set to start in the coming months.
Perhaps more intriguing though is that the report goes on to detail that Sky have reservations about going to 14 teams, and that it remains ‘unclear’ whether the existing match per round as a result of expansion will actually be shown at all.
Sky agreed as part of the existing three-year deal to show every Super League match live, but that was for six games a weekend, not seven. That would require them to spend more on production costs were they to televise more rugby league.
And the report states: “Sky are refusing to cover the extra £500,000 in production costs to televise the additional games not in the current contract, and it is unclear whether they will be broadcast.”