WHEN the chief executive of the National Rugby League Dave Smith announced its broadcast deal with the Nine Network nine days ago, it put a big - a very big - smile on the face of Australian Football League chairman Mike Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick hasn't had much to smile about lately but suddenly the arch-enemy had given him and the AFL the mother of all Christmas presents, four months early. 
With the stroke of a pen, Smith, the NRL and Nine had raised the value of the AFL TV rights dramatically. Critically, by doing only half a deal, Nine opened the door for Fitzpatrick and AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan to craft what turned into a $2.5 billion deal.
It wasn't just that Fitzpatrick and McLachlan could sit back and ask Kerry Stokes' Seven Network to: "make our day". They could ask Stokes and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation - and Telstra - to make their decade.
This is a deal which cements the financial future of the AFL well into the 2020s. Let's hope the AFL gets its act together on the football field. It's got the (mainly) NewsCorp and Seven money through to 2022; it's now got to deliver the eyeballs by providing a premium product.
After Nine and the NRL sealed their deal it was crucial for Seven to lock up the AFL. Equally it was really the only bidder for free-to-air TV rights - no one FTA network could possibly accommodate both NRL and AFL on its schedule.
It would not make sense for either the network or the code for any matches to be broadcast on FTA subsidiary channels.
But Foxtel is a very different matter. It can accommodate both codes and arguably needs both - although it could "manage" with only the AFL rights. But equally, the relevant FTA network needs Foxtel to provide a compelling and comprehensive offer - both in broadcast and payment - to the relevant code.
Nine chose to go without Foxtel upfront and now both it and the NRL are exposed in negotiating with Foxtel. Actually, it will negotiate with NewsCorp and its now wholly-owned Fox Sports, which partners 50-50 with Telstra in Foxtel and supplies the product to the subscription-TV service.
With AFL, once again all nine games each week will be broadcast live on Foxtel. Up to four of those games will be broadcast live by Seven and/or an alternative FTA network - which can now really only be the Ten network.
The logic works thus: 100 per cent of viewers get FTA-TV; at the moment only 30 per cent or so get Foxtel. Premium sport is absolutely crucial to both but because of that disparity can be comfortably shared by both, all live-to-air.
That's the way to maximise the revenue to the code, while also maximising the eyeballs-to-cost to the broadcasters.
By going first and going only FTA initially, both Nine and NRL were counting on "Fox Sports/Foxtel has to come in". The NRL is counting on the extra dollars from Foxtel; Nine was betting that would reduce the $925 million five-year upfront cost it paid.
The mobile and streaming rights add a major new dimension which was really only glimpsed as the future when the last deal was signed in 2011.
Telstra will once again hold the rights for handheld devices, AFL.com.au and the club digital network, and will broadcast every match on mobile devices.
But NewsCorp and Fox Sports, critically, have the rights for streaming all games live to IPTV (internet protocol TV) tablets and smart phones.
This underlines the win-win nature of the deal.The AFL gets the big money but it has also ensured that it gets its product out to the eyeballs, whatever device they are watching.