Landmark international rights deal with Fox Sports

[Super Freak]

The National Rugby Leaguehas entered into a partnership with Fox Sports Australia to take the NRL to a global audience via a direct to consumer international streaming product, to be known as Watch NRL.

Rugby League fans living abroad* will be able to follow all the on-field action live throughout the 2018 NRL Telstra Premiership season as a result of the new partnership offering.

The new international streaming service will be available for round one of the 2018 NRL Telstra Premiership Season.

Fans will also able to view the Holden State of Origin Series, Australian men's and women's international matches played on home soil and Intrust Super Cup matches.

NRL Chief Executive Todd Greenberg said the partnership would provide thousands of rugby league fans living or travelling overseas with the opportunity to keep up with their teams' results every week, as well as being able to tune in to watch many other live marquee matches throughout the year.

"This is a fantastic result for fans outside of Australia and it means that more people will have the chance to watch rugby league live than ever before," Mr Greenberg said.

"We're fortunate that we have passionate and enthusiastic NRL fans right throughout the world and many of them are just as vocal and committed as our local fans that live where each of our teams are based."

NRL Head of Strategy David Silverton added: "We are delighted to be partnering with Fox Sports on this initiative, which is simply about providing the opportunity for more fans to watch the highest quality rugby league anywhere in the world.

"We thank Patrick Delany and his team at Fox Sports for bringing this initiative to life with us and we look forward to increasing world-wide viewership next season and beyond."

Fox Sports CEO, Patrick Delany, said: "When we negotiated the new NRL broadcast deal in 2015, News Corp committed to helping grow the game in Australia and overseas.

"In 2018, that promise comes to life when Fox Sports delivers the world's first international NRL streaming service to feature every NRL game plus Fox League's famous entertainment shows – anywhere, anytime live and on demand."

Users who log on to Watch NRL will be able to choose the way they watch – either from a dedicated website, the Watch NRL mobile or tablet App for iOS or Android or via their TV screens using Airplay or Chromecast.

Fox Sports have partnered with International Management Group (IMG) to promote the international NRL broadcast rights over the next five years, with FOX SPORTS managing the broadcast rights for the USA and the UK.

For more information on Watch NRL, including when the streaming service will be available, head to www.watchnrl.com.

* Watch NRL content will only be accessible outside of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Territories.

http://www.nrl.com/landmark-interna...sports/tabid/10874/newsid/113968/default.aspx

 

[Super Freak]

This is awesome news.

Rugbypass was shit.

 

[Nashy]

Hopefully I don't have to be in Sweden to watch it. If I can simply go somewhere close, like Singapore, I see this as a way to get rid of Fox.

 

[Fozz]

No mention of costs?

 

[Morkel]

Yeah, and how much will this free service cost me?

 

[Battler]

The NRL livestream - on livestream.com I think - is legitimately GOAT. Was able to watch NRL all through Europe (apart from the UK, but a VPN may or may not have been employed). Dno if people in countries like Iceland would be prepared to pay to watch though.

As an aside, Foxtel needs to improve their GO app. The thing was 30 seconds behind all season and shit quality. Getting spammed notifications from mates whenever something happened before I saw it on a so called live app was infuriating.

 

[Cult]

The NRL livestream - on livestream.com I think - is legitimately GOAT. Was able to watch NRL all through Europe (apart from the UK, but a VPN may or may not have been employed). Dno if people in countries like Iceland would be prepared to pay to watch though.

As an aside, Foxtel needs to improve their GO app. The thing was 30 seconds behind all season and shit quality. Getting spammed notifications from mates whenever something happened before I saw it on a so called live app was infuriating.

I don't think livestream works anymore.

 

[john1420]

I just can't imagine a streaming service would deliver HD quality in a fast paced sporting event

Absolutely brilliant if you're overseas or whatever and have no other choice, but I won't be rushing to cancel my Fox and getting VPN

 

[Super Freak]

I just can't imagine a streaming service would deliver HD quality in a fast paced sporting event

Some do deliver that.

 

[Super Freak]

I don't think livestream works anymore.

Yeah, was scrapped mid-2017. RugbyPass took over from Round 17 onwards.

I was wondering why they did scrap it, Livestream was a very popular service and I was in the middle of downloading all of the matches. But this article shows why they did.

 

[Nashy]

Livestream was a pile of shit. It worked in like 3 countries total. While I was on our holiday, I was physically in the countries it was meant to work in, and it still didn't work. Had to pretend I was in Sweden.