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Rugby swells its purse in record broadcast deal with Fox Sports and Ten

ARUThe Australian Rugby Union has capped off its year with a surprise broadcasting deal worth close to $300 million which will see the sport carried on Fox Sports and the Ten Network.

The deal is expected to be announced tomorrow, continuing Fox Sports relationship with the code and delivering a Super Rugby game on delayed telecast to fee-to-air TV for the first time.

The ARU had its part of the deal finalised since before the Rugby World Cup, but Mumbrella understands an announcement was delayed  awaiting finalisation from the regional body SANZAR (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia Rugby), which has been working with overseas broadcasters on their packages.

Of the 11 broadcaster negotiations, there are a number of long form agreements which are still to be finalised.

The announcement will complete the negotiations for the three main football codes which have all finalised their next broadcast deals over the past few months.

The AFL secured a $2.5 bn deal in August, while the NRL locked in the final part of its deal worth $1.85 bn in November.

Under the terms of the deal, Fox Sports will televise all Super Rugby Games live as well as Test matches in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Ten will have a delayed broadcast of one Super Rugby match each week, as well as simulcast rights to Wallabies Tests and replays of the Super Rugby Finals.

Speculation had been rife that the the code would not be able to extract value from the deal but has managed to secure growth based on rights worth $55 million a year.

Simon Canning

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