Will YouTube show the NRL* after or is Google being used to drive up the expected $1.5bn broadcast rights price? Google has revealed it’s in the mix and eyeing league.

“From time to time we do talk to organisations about what they might do in the online world,” a Google spokesman told Mumbrella Tuesday afternoon.

Media buyers have told the industry website first that Google was in discussion with the AFL, which has since been corrected to name the NRL as the instigator of the deal.

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“Media buyers have confirmed they are aware of talks between the parties,” Mumbrella reported.

Anti-siphoning rules govern who can broadcast major sports events but do not affect online streaming, the Australian Communications and Media Authority confirmed.

“The right to show AFL, NRL or other sports online would be a contractual and copyright matter for the rights provider,” ACMA spokesman Blake Murdoch said.

In April The Australian reported that Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull foreshadowed a will to change the anti-siphoning list, which gives free-to-air broadcasters first refusal on the rights to show many sports, including AFL, and the NRL.

The news story on Tuesday unexpectedly flushed out another player in the looming fight for rights to show the AFL online.

Telstra’s streaming contract will end in 2016 and Optus-Singtel chief executive Allen Lew has announced it will look at bidding for the AFL.

“Yes, we’ll be looking at it, but we’ll be looking at it in a hard-nosed [way] and what are the advantages it brings us in this market and … strategically how it fits in with how we want to be in the eyes of our customers,” he said, according to Fairfax Media.

“Professional sports like NBA and NFL [are] going direct to the worldwide audience,”

*An earlier version of this story reported Mumbrella and Fairfax Media’s claim the AFL were in negotiations with Google, which has since been corrected to say the NRL is the code in talks with Google for broadcast rights.