Seven’s investment in digital streaming rights and an expanded programming slate of magazine style shows is paying dividends in its first season.

The AFL’s free to air broadcaster has reached an average of five million Australians each week of the season, which is up by 7 per cent on 2024.

This has enabled Seven to grow its AFL-related revenue by more than 10 per cent, according to well placed sources.

Showing the footy on linear TV and through its 7plus app has allowed Seven to attract an incremental audience that skews much younger than its traditional linear broadcast.

During the regular season, 7plus added an additional 250,000 viewers each week, which doubled to 500,000 viewers during the first couple of weeks of finals footy.

“If you look at that BVOD audience for footy each week, about 80 per cent of that is unique. So that’s driving true incremental reach for brands,” Seven Network national sports director Rob Maclean told B&T.

“That number jumps up over 90 per cent on the younger demos, people aged 18 to 39. From a holistic one plus reach perspective, 7plus has played a really important role in terms of maximising the number of footy fans that our partners, sponsors and wider brands are connecting with.”

A few years ago, Seven West Media and Foxtel secured the AFL media rights from 2025 to 2031 in a historic deal worth $4.5 billion. At the time, Seven said it would pay an additional 14 per cent for AFL rights in 2025 compared with the 2024 season, which includes the addition of digital rights.

As viewing audiences gradually migrate from linear broadcast to streaming, the value of digital rights will become increasingly important for Seven to attract larger audiences and more advertisers to the fold.

This year alone the commercial program has grown, including new brands coming on board such as Nintendo, Alinta, InstantScripts, Skechers and Australian Made.

Seven’s national television sales director Katie Finney told B&T that this season has not only seen new brands show up at the footy, but also traditional sponsorship backers (see full list below) increasing the level of their support.

“At the beginning of the year, our ambition was for it to be our most successful AFL season on record. And we’ve been able to deliver that,” Finney said.

“There has been strong brand support going all the way through into our finals. We’re actually seeing brands come and upweight their sponsor association into the finals too. Brands are telling us that there is no better place to connect with Australians than in sport.”

2025 AFL partners, sponsors

Partners: Toyota, McDonald’s, AAMI, Harvey Norman

National sponsors: Google, Coles, Sportsbet, Bunnings, Chemist Warehouse, Industry Super Funds, Hostplus, CBUS, Telstra, NAB, Asahi Beverages, Uber Eats, OMO Ultimate, Cash Converters, Colgate-Palmolive, BWS, Virgin Australia

Local market sponsors: Seek, HBF, Disney, Bupa, Complete Home Filtration

Australia’s ‘Super Bowl moment’

Although die hard NRL fans might disagree, the AFL grand final is widely regarded as Australia’s Super Bowl moment, particularly outside of NSW and Queensland.

In 2024, nearly a quarter of Aussies (6.09 million) tuned in to watch the Brisbane Lions dismantle the Sydney Swans by 120 to 60 in the decider, with an average total TV audience of 4.02 million.

According to Roy Morgan survey data, the audience figure may even be larger (7,569,000) when viewing at pubs and clubs is taken into account.

The huge TV audience allows Seven to charge a premium for ads that run during the game. B&T understands that AFL Grand Final spots sell for north of $200,000 for a national 30-second spot, although media buyers will try to negotiate placement and bonuses.

This year’s flag decider pits the Geelong Cats against the Brisbane Lions for the first time in a grand final.
Snoop Dogg will headline the Telstra pre-game entertainment alongside a host of local talent, while Gout Gout will fire the pistol for the half time sprint.

“For years we have been building the AFL Grand Final as our Super Bowl moment. That collision of live sport and entertainment is how the AFL and Seven want to shape culture and connect that with brands,” Finney said.

This year’s AFL decider will see the star-studded ‘AAMI to the Rescue’ campaign (see 2024’s ad above) return to ensure that the missing Sherrin is found and turns up on time.

Google is another brand with a hero integration to watch out for, Harvey Norman will sponsor ‘fan watch’, and Toyota will be giving away the last ticket to the match.

Telstra will be everywhere throughout the afternoon. Aside from sponsoring the pre-game entertainment, the telco has sponsored the Telstra Tactic Pro – an live match analysis tool.

Digital rights innovation

Seven’s expanded coverage includes a ‘Sunday to Saturday’ footy lineup of live sport and ancillary magazine style shows such as Agenda Setters, Unfiltered and Front Bar.

Maclean said the expanded AFL slate and digital rights has allowed Seven to deliver more content and fan engagement across the week.

“Those programs have played a really important role for us in tapping into a new audience, and performed really well from the 7plus point of view. In an average week, Seven’s AFL coverage reaches about nearly 5 million viewers, but 1 million of those are unique to the ancillary programs.

“That tells us that we’re seeing both hardcore footy fans that are diving in to watch something like the Agenda Setters, and then we’re seeing sort of the lighter fans that want that entertainment style programming. These programs have given us another way for brands that may not have been a part of our overarching live AFL offering, but are looking for that opportunity to unlock different types of integrations.”

Another innovation this season is AFL Kids Call, which is a live pop up stream targeted to children. It features commentary and sideline punditry by children for three games this season.

The audience for AFL Kids Call grew by 258 per cent from this first match to the third, adding streaming numbers of around 50,000. Nintendo sponsored AFL Kids Call, and Seven said that it plans to expand the initiative next season.

As the season draws to a close, Seven’s investment in digital rights has unlocked new ways to connect with fans, broaden and grow its audience, and attract new advertisers and sponsors to the footy.

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