Nine bid accepted by the AFL

The Australian Football League today announced that the AFL Commission has accepted an offer from Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) on behalf of the Nine Network Australia Pty Ltd (“Nine”) for the rights to broadcast all eight games per week for five years commencing in 2007.

The offer, $780 million, is a substantial improvement on the present broadcasting deal, with the cash component representing an increase of approximately 50 percent.

The Channel Seven and Channel Ten Networks have both been advised of the AFL Commission’s decision and have 14 days to match the offer.

Chairman of the AFL Commission, Ron Evans said, “This has been a very long, thorough and rigorous process, with AFL Executives and the Commission working for two years on the valuation and negotiation process,”

“The offer from Nine reinforces the position of the AFL as Australia’s premier sporting competition, and this result will underpin the growth and development of the game, and the long term security of the 16 clubs.”

“Participation in our game has grown by over 100,000 over the last few years, and the offer accepted today will allow us to properly fund further growth, and invest in development of the game,” Mr Demetriou said.

"Like everyone else at the AFL, I'm thrilled with today's announcement, but I'd just like to reinforce ... that Channel Seven and Channel 10 still have the right to respond to the offer that we've accepted today."

“We believe this is a great result for football, and hope that this view will be shared by all supporters of Australia’s indigenous game.”

"We have endeavoured in accepting this offer to obviously optimise our financial return, but have been absolutely conscious of the priority given to the reach and the coverage in our developing markets and, of course, the protection in South Australia and Western Australia of the free-to-air component."

The AFL will not be making any further comment until it has received a response from the Seven and Ten Networks.