Seven and Foxtel have extended their broadcasting deal with the AFL, in what is the biggest TV rights contract in Australian history.
The multi-billion deal comes after a late bid from Nine, who offered $500 million a year bid, pushing the asking price past the current deal, worth $473,000 a year for the next two years.
Seven and Foxtel now hold the rights until 2031. The seven-year deal starts from the beginning of the 2025 season.
The exact details, including a monetary figure, will be announced this afternoon by AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan (below).
Foxtel was floating the idea of a ‘Super Saturday’ in which games would be broadcast exclusively on Foxtel, meaning Saturday wouldn’t see any free-to-air games.
The exception would be in WA and SA, where the four clubs have the rights to be on free-to-air TV, regardless of Foxtel’s own deals.
In addition, Foxtel was pushing for more tape delayed games on Seven, pushing up its own ‘live’ quota, as well as the use of its own commentary team, instead of Seven’s.
We will find out if they managed to wrangle these conditions this afternoon.
