Kayo price rises on the cards after Foxtel’s $520 million rights deal

August 14, 2026 — 5:00am

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In this week’s On Background, growing pains at Foxtel, a makeover at Guardian towers and News24 hits new heights on YouTube.

Back in April, as Foxtel geared up to bid for the NRL broadcast rights, its outgoing boss Patrick Delany called executives to Sydney for an off-site, aimed at uncovering “big ideas” to grow the business.

The key issue was canvassing staff on where Foxtel was going to find new revenue. Kayo subscriptions have plateaued, Binge is offering bargain bin sign-ups, and its cable business is in a slow but terminal decline. In June, Foxtel agreed to stump up $520 million a year over seven years to retain the rights to the code, doubling the cost of its current deal.

It was the biggest sports broadcast deal ever inked in Australia, with Nine, the owner of this masthead, also increasing its free-to-air deal to $145 million annually (up around 25 per cent).

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Where Foxtel plans on finding the extra $250 million a year to pay the NRL has left outsiders baffled. Fans of the Perth Bears or PNG Chiefs aren’t going to deliver hundreds of thousands of extra subscribers.

While a series of different solutions were presented and continue to be explored, there is one prevailing lever to be pulled: price rises.

Two months ago, NRL boss Peter V’Landys and Delany made it clear that access to the sport would remain affordable, despite the league filling its pockets with cash. Two weeks later, Foxtel hiked the cost of its cable service. Foxtel sources say it’s a sign of things to come.

Since signing its AFL broadcast deal in 2022, the price of........

© The Sydney Morning Herald