Over the past few months, there has been growing speculation that the NRL were considering purchasing a sizeable stake in the Super League.
The idea would be that the NRL buy a non-majority share but take over administrative control and allow individual NRL clubs to buy stakes in individual Super League clubs.
It is now being reported that talks have been put on hold, though.
According to Love Rugby League, talks have been put on hold due to Andrew Abdo's imminent departure as NRL CEO and the Super League will instead turn their immediate attention to securing a new broadcast deal as the NRL searches for a qualified candidate to replace Abdo.
However, despite the stall in talks, RFL CEO Rhodri Jones explained that the competitions are still aligned on bringing the standard of the Super League up to that of the NRL.
"We're clearly aligned on where we want to get the Northern Hemisphere to, but that's a ten-year plan, aspiration, North Star you could call it," Jones told Love Rugby League.
"And there's a multitude of elements that are inclusive of that, everything from revenues into the game, broadcast, commercial, digitalisation, monetisation of digital assets, to pathways, to communities, to international competition, both country-to-country but also club-to-club.
"And essentially the output of the meetings are that we and the NRL will feed into a plan that we will build, that we'll try and deliver against the objective to bring Super League to the standard that the NRL is at the moment.
"But ultimately, at this moment in time, both hemispheres are in the throes of their broadcast negotiations. And the conclusion of those two things will in some ways dictate what the eventual deal with the NRL will look like."
On the flip side, it appears the NRL will try to continue talks with the Super League until Abdo's departure on July 15.
He was last in the UK during the middle of April trying to advance talks over what could be one of the most ground-breaking deals in rugby league history.
