NFL auctioning media rights to 2026 Australia game, per report

Just as the NFL has done the past two years with its Week 1 game from Brazil, the league is looking to sell next year’s Week 1 game from Melbourne, Australia as a one-off.

According to a report from Puck sports correspondent John Ourand, the NFL sent out requests for proposal to “a host of media companies and streamers” for the first-ever regular-season NFL game to be played in Australia. This season, of course, YouTube secured broadcast rights for the Friday night Brazil game in Week 1. The year before that, Peacock took home the honors.

As a result of the NFL opting to sell the Australia game standalone, Ourand reports that next year’s Brazil game, which won’t be played during opening weekend, will move back to one of the NFL’s current broadcast partners.

Next year’s Melbourne contest will feature the Los Angeles Rams against a team that has not yet been announced. Per Ourand, “the league is likely hoping to strike a deal with a streamer that has global reach” due to the massive time difference between the United States and Australia.

The going rate for these games tends to be around $100 million. This season’s YouTube game from Brazil averaged 19.5 million viewers, 1 million of which tuned in from outside the United States.

Citing sources, Ourand writes that the NFL is looking to have a deal in place for the Australia game by the Super Bowl in February.

The request for proposals shouldn’t come as any surprise. The NFL has shown an affinity to cleave off games that aren’t tied to any of its current broadcast agreements to sell a la carte. However, one would imagine that auctioning off a game in Australia is a bit of a harder sell for the league considering the time zone restraints.

Regardless, there will certainly be a market for the game. The NFL could play at 3 a.m. on Pluto and find someone willing to pay big money for the right to air it.