AFL CHIEF executive Gillon McLachlan says the game's next broadcast rights deal will look very different to the existing one but has declined to comment on what the deal will be worth.
McLachlan is hopeful Channel 7 and Foxtel will once again share the duties for the game's next broadcast rights deal.
The current arrangement – the record $1.25 billion deal signed in 2011 between Seven, Foxtel and Telstra – expires at the end of 2016 and talks are expected to soon get underway over the next deal.
McLachlan has no doubt it will again smash the previous record, joking at a lunch hosted by Greater Western Sydney on Monday that if it doesn't, he will be looking for a new job.
"The broadcast rights are going to look very different," McLachlan told reporters.
"The evolution we've had in the media space has been significant in the last period of time.
"What that looks like, I'm not going to telegraph or talk to, but I'm sure the contract will look different.
"What I will say is we've had an incredibly successful partnership over the last few years with Channel 7 in the free-to-air space and with Foxtel.
"If we could continue that in this current form, I'd love that, but we'll see where those discussions go."
The AFL received some criticism this year as it experimented with different start times for games, however McLachlan stressed television audiences remained particularly strong.
"I'm not going to weigh into valuations," he said when asked about the broadcast deal, with numbers from $1.6b up to $2b being mooted.
"We will not be talking about our media rights generally.
"But we've had an incredibly strong ratings year again last year, we were watched by more Australians than any other sport, and sports rights are tent pole programming (critically valuable) for broadcasters.
"We're confident in our product (and) we're confident in the importance of sports rights generally to networks in a fragmenting media environment.
"That's the basis for confidence. After that, I'm reluctant to comment."
Asked about the possibility of free-to-air networks splitting the rights, McLachlan said: "We'd look at anything, obviously.
"But I would like to say that we have been incredibly pleased with our partnership with Seven and Foxtel for a long period of time.
"But when you get into these arrangements, anything's possible."
