Despite a viral surge in criticism of Channel Nine for its unsatisfactory coverage of the Olympic Games, Nine and and FoxSports are retaining the broadcasting rights for NRL after trading a whopping $1.025 billion to secure a further five-year deal.

According to reports in the Sydney Morning Herald Nine’s CEO David Gyngell claimed to have laid out as much cash the network could possibly afford in order to retain the rights resulting in an outcome ARL Commission chairman John Grant (not surprisingly) described as “fantastic”.

Gyngell also revealed plans to air different games in Queensland and NSW live-to-air on Friday nights, so both states will have to watch one of the games screened on delay. “When you pay this much for the exclusive rights you run it to a commercial advantage,” Gyngell explained.

“We are a broadcaster not a ‘narrow’ caster and we cater for the majority. Queensland wants to watch Queensland games and NSW want to see NSW games. I don’t apologise for that.”

What do NRL fans think of that?

Words by Jacquie Lennon
Photo by Mark Nolan for Getty Images

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