Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook has emerged as a future contender to broadcast NRL matches after the social media giant made a play for the Indian Premier League cricket tournament.

Facebook put up $600 million but it was nowhere near enough with Star (owned by that little Aussie battler Rupert Murdoch) winning out with a $2.6 billion bid.

You’d like to think Facebook are serious about sports streaming as an important tool moving forward – the Indian offer proves it.

The Australian market is tiny compared to India but it won’t take long for them to find out how much of a thirst Australians have for rugby league – particularly on television and digital as it constantly outrates the geographically superior AFL.