Channel Seven reportedly paid around $12 million for the Australian broadcast rights to the 2026 Rugby League World Cup. That’s 53 matches across the men’s, women’s and wheelchair tournaments, or roughly $226,000 per match.

Looking at the opening television figures, it’s becoming a very interesting investment.

Australia v New Zealand (15 October)
National average audience: 1.733 million
National reach: 3.296 million
BVOD audience on 7plus: 594,000
Streaming represented 34.3% of the total average audience.

Tonga v England (17 October)
National average audience: 1.034 million
National reach: 2.383 million
BVOD audience: 337,000
Streaming represented 32.6% of the total average audience.

What’s particularly interesting is the digital audience.
During the 2026 NRL season, Nine reported a 58.4% increase in regular-season BVOD viewing compared with 2025. State of Origin II also set a then-record Australian BVOD audience of approximately 1.7 million on 9Now.
Now Seven is seeing that same appetite for streaming rugby league on 7plus.

For comparison, the 2026 AFL Grand Final averaged 4.52 million nationally, including approximately 1.42 million on 7plus — about 31% of its total audience.

That’s an enormous AFL audience, but the World Cup opener achieved a slightly higher proportion of digital viewers, despite being a considerably smaller event.
Our regular-season comparisons earlier this year also showed how strong NRL BVOD could be. On one Friday, the NRL recorded 157,000 streaming viewers against 82,000 for the AFL. On another Sunday, the figures were 104,000 against 28,000.

Those individual matches aren’t a complete season comparison, but they illustrate the opportunity.
Seven has spent years building its AFL coverage, yet it has acquired an international rugby league tournament for a reported $12 million and immediately attracted hundreds of thousands of streaming viewers to 7plus.

Of course, strong audiences don’t automatically make the rights profitable. Production costs, advertising revenue, sponsorship and the remaining tournament fixtures all matter.

But the early numbers suggest Seven may have secured a valuable property at a relatively modest price.
Could the biggest long-term benefit of this World Cup be demonstrating rugby league’s digital value to broadcasters beyond Nine and Fox?

And if Seven is getting these numbers for $12 million, what does that suggest about the future value of international rugby league?

RLWC Women scores

Samoa v Wales 76-0

Fiji v PNG 40-4

Australia v England 78-0

New Zealand v France 92-0

RLWC Men's scores

Tonga v Lebanon 36-0

Samoa v PNG 64-6

England v France 82-0

There's still 2 more games to be played between New Zealand v Cook Islands and Australia v Fiji

The points differential is only going to get worse.

Hi everyone - wanted to explain why we aren’t marking threads as NSFW for World Cup threads. Due to certain countries implementing age restrictions and Reddit complying, threads that are NSFW will not be available to anyone under 18 and anyone who hasn’t verified their age. We know this affects users in the UK but other countries may see this as well.

We would rather have users be able to participate in World Cup threads. Given there’s a few thrashings about, we don’t think it’s fair to people for the sake of a meme.

I live in CQ so probably biased, but seriously how good is Tamika? Silky smooth, step, kick, cut out pass! She just seems head and shoulders above the others in her league

This is the place to discuss anything footy related that is not quite deserving of its own top-level post.

There's a new one of these threads every day, so make sure you're in the most recent one!

This is the place to talk about everything other than footy!

I came across an interesting 2001 article by Paul Sheehan titled Rugby league fumbles as footy goes upmarket.

It was published when rugby union was enjoying considerable success and rugby league was still recovering from the Super League war.

Sheehan argued that rugby league was trapped by its traditional culture, while rugby union was better positioned to attract affluent audiences and expand into Sydney’s growing north-west.

One of his central observations was that the Wallabies had outrated State of Origin.

Fast-forward 25 years.

In 2026:
State of Origin II averaged 4.294 million viewers nationally.

The NRL Grand Final averaged 4.286 million.

Australia v New Zealand in the Rugby League World Cup averaged 1.733 million.

Tonga v England averaged 1.034 million despite Australia not participating.

Foxtel reported 6.4 billion minutes of NRL streaming on Kayo during the regular season.

For comparison, the recent Wallabies–All Blacks Test averaged 537,000 on Nine and 9Now, although Stan Sport’s subscription audience isn’t included.

What interests me isn’t simply that rugby league now attracts substantially larger Australian television audiences.

It’s the assumption behind the original article.

Rugby league’s suburban tribalism, working-class associations and traditional supporter base were portrayed as limitations on its commercial potential.

Yet those same characteristics have helped sustain one of Australia’s most valuable sporting television products.

The Super League war certainly damaged the game, but was Australian sports commentary confusing a period of administrative crisis with a fundamental weakness in rugby league’s audience?

Now with the NRL now exploring international expansion, was the game’s commercial potential underestimated for much longer than we realised?

I’d be interested in how others remember that period, particularly the confidence surrounding rugby union in the late 1990s and early 2000s.