Hot on the heels of the highest-rating AFL Grand Final since 2005 and record-breaking streaming audiences on 7plus Sport, the Seven Network has unveiled its roster of partners for the 2026 AFL Premiership Season — underlining the commercial power of live footy in a soft advertising market.
Last year, Seven’s AFL coverage reached 17.6 million Australians, including 4.56 million on 7plus Sport. Seven’s AFL reached five million viewers each week of the 2025 regular season across Seven and 7plus Sport, an increase of 7 per cent year-on-year.
Returning as broadcast partners are Toyota, McDonald’s, AAMI and Harvey Norman, joined by a deep bench of 2026 sponsors including Coles, Telstra, Sportsbet, Bunnings, Chemist Warehouse, Industry Super Funds, Hostplus, Cbus, NAB, Asahi Beverages, BWS, Colgate-Palmolive and Uber Eats.
Beyond the live game, Seven’s ancillary programming has become a key entry point for brands. Shows such as The Front Bar, The Agenda Setters, Unfiltered, Extra Time and Sunday Footy Feast have evolved into standalone commercial platforms.
In 2026, Seven is doubling down by adding a second weekly edition of The Agenda Setters on Wednesday night.
“The core way we’re seeing new brands come into the mix are via the ancillary shows,” Seven’s national sport sales Director, Rob Maclean told B&T.
“They’re a really core part of our offering last year because they underpinned growth in new segments. Across the course of the season, they were adding about 25 per cent incremental reach to our live AFL proposition.
“There were fans watching one or multiple of those programs and not watching Seven’s live AFL coverage and vice-versa. We’ve continued to lean into those by adding another night of The Agenda Setters this week on Wednesday.”
He also stated that this was a way for brands to get involved with the AFL who may have previously thought the sport is too expensive for them.
Cross-advertising on Fox
A unique part of Seven’s broadcast rights agreement with the AFL, is that every Seven-produced match also shown on Fox Footy must include 15 minutes of ad inventory sold exclusively by Seven.
Seven-produced matches where this applies include: Thursday and Friday Night matches, Sunday afternoon matches, marquee matches (ANZAC Day, King’s Birthday, Dreamtime etc.) and all ten Finals.
The commercials bought (via Seven sales) for the Fox Footy Channel are guaranteed to transmit onto all Fox platforms for the relevant game—meaning they are seen by Fox set-top box viewers as well as those watching on Fox Digital platforms. The inventory is allocated into the match zone which includes the breaks at quarter time, half-time and three quarter time.
Tackling a soft ad market
In a tough advertising market Seven has placed a heavy emphasis on sport in 2026, giving brands optimal chance to showcase themselves across its content slate.
“We believe that live sports have never been more important to fans but also the brands that want to be reaching those fans as well,” Maclean explained.
“Footy and cricket are integral to our spine across extended periods of the year. And then you add to that 52 weeks of Horse Racing, Supercars, LIV Golf. Beyond that, we then look strategically to sports that can land in key periods where we may need that robust programming to guard against the sort of fluctuations of the market as well. The Rugby League World Cup drops in there across October and November to strengthen our proposition for the market and for brands in a really meaningful way.”
Seven’s national television sales director, Katie Finney, concurred that 2026 will be Seven’s biggest year of sport.
“We’ve got the Rugby League World Cup and the Commonwealth Games. You look at brands and the they are doubling down in live sport,” Finney told B&T.
“For us, we’re all about news, live sport and entertainment. They are our content pillars and the backbone of our schedule. It really does give us an opportunity for brands to have such a deeply integrated relationship with our broadcast and then connect with our audiences at scale.”
With a stacked sport calendar and expanding AFL ecosystem, Seven Network is betting big on not on live footy but sport in general to anchor brands in an unpredictable market.
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