Foxtel and Kayo have recorded their biggest-ever AFL viewing audiences after a blockbuster weekend of preliminary finals.
The AFL Preliminary Finals lived up to the hype on the field and on screen, with Foxtel and Kayo pulling in record audiences across the weekend.
Saturday night’s showdown saw the Brisbane Lions storm into their third straight Grand Final after toppling Collingwood by 29 points at the MCG.
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The see-sawing clash, watched by more than 96,000 fans in the stadium, drew a national average television audience of 903,000 across the platforms of Foxtel and Kayo.
According to the subscription broadcaster, that figure makes it the most-watched AFL match of all time on its platforms.
A night earlier, Geelong earned their spot in the decider with a hard-fought 30-point win over Hawthorn. In front of nearly 100,000 at the MCG, the Cats overcame a slow start before producing a devastating third-quarter burst led by Tyson Stengle, Patrick Dangerfield and Jeremy Cameron.
That clash attracted a national average audience of 822,000 across the platforms of Foxtel and Kayo, making it the fourth most-watched AFL game ever for the Foxtel Group.
The strong audience figures capped a bumper weekend for the Foxtel Group, with the company stating that streaming averages for Finals Week 3 rose by almost 17 per cent compared with the same stage last year.
2025 marks the first year of a brand new seven-year broadcast agreement — worth a reported $643 million annually in cash and contra per year, the biggest sports rights package in Australian history — the Foxtel Group is contributing the lion’s share, about $450 million each year.
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Fans tuning in this September have also been hearing a new sound, with Foxtel and Kayo using their own dedicated commentary team for every match, giving subscribers an alternative to the free-to-air broadcast on Channel 7.
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