New digital rights to the AFL and beefed up coverage has enabled it to attract more sponsors across different packages, as well as new brands to the casual market.
Seven has locked in its largest array of broadcast partners and sponsors a week ahead of the 2025 AFL Premiership Season.
Toyota, McDonald’s, AAMI and Harvey Norman have been brought in as top-tier broadcast partners, while dozens of leading brands have taken up broadcast sponsorship packages of various shapes and sizes.
These include Google, Coles, Sportsbet, Bunnings, Chemist Warehouse, Industry Super Funds, Hostplus, CBUS, Telstra, NAB, Asahi Beverages, Uber Eats, OMO Ultimate, Cash Converters, Colgate-Palmolive, BWS and Virgin Australia.
Other brands that have signed on with major AFL packages or as local market sponsors include Seek, HBF, Disney, Bupa and Complete Home Filtration.
The packages include top tier broadcaster partnerships across the entire Seven AFL proposition; brands that might own a single night of football or integrate with a specific magazine show (see below); through to brands might want to advertise in the short market in bursts.
Although Seven’s major sponsorship packages are “locked and loaded” there are other opportunities to tap into its kids friendly streaming coverage and other seasonal plays as the season progresses.
“We are on track for a record breaking season, which is probably twofold,” Seven’s national sports sales director Rob Maclean told B&T. “There’s incumbent sponsors that continue to return because there’s a deep level of trust there. And then you couple that with your digital rights and these new ancillary programs, which have opened up new and different conversations and more ways for brands.
“Where the growth in sponsorship revenue has largely come from is driven by these ancillary programs, which have provided new opportunities for sponsors, as across 7plus, such as our team hubs.”
This season kicks off a new seven-year $4.5 billion era of AFL sports rights shared between Seven West Media and Foxtel. This roughly equates to $643 million per year between the two broadcasters and places pressure on both to commercialise their investment.
Seven’s line-up of programming and live matches is designed to cater to two audiences: harder core legacy fans who want to lap up the analytical side of the game and lighter viewers.
Seven’s AFL coverage includes matches on 23 Thursday nights, 24 Friday nights, State Footy Saturdays, 25 Sunday afternoons and five Sunday nights, plus marquee games and every game in the Finals Series including exclusive coverage of the the Brownlow Medal and the AFL Grand Final.
Fans in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia can watch every game involving teams from their home states.
Last year, Seven’s AFL and AFLW coverage reached 17.4 million Australians. The AFL Grand Final was the most-watched program of 2024, with a total TV audience of 4.06 million (making it the most watched Grand Final since 2021) and a national reach of 6.24 million. The 2024 Brownlow Medal had 1.27 million total TV viewers and reached 2.9 million.
“Seven is a one-stop shop for brands to connect with footy fans on every screen in the country. Brands can be part of the action on Seven’s capital city and regional broadcast channels, 7plus Sport live streaming, and all siren-to-siren ad inventory on Fox Footy simulcast matches including on Kayo and Binge,” Seven national television sales director Katie Finney said.
“One place, one transaction to access all these screens and the most efficient way to achieve the biggest reach each week. Seven is also the only place to unlock the single ad after the goal break – the most valuable 30 seconds in marketing, now available on every screen,”
The Seven AFL line-up for 2025 also includes the new programs The Agenda Setters, Unfiltered, Extra Time, Sunday Footy Feast, The Wash Up, Kane’s Call and Full Sweat, plus long-standing favourite The Front Bar.
The Front Bar returns in 2025 with premier partner Lion, plus program sponsors Kia, Youi, BWS and Sportsbet.
This year OMO Ultimate is the naming rights sponsor of The Wash Up on Sunday night, and Virgin Australia, DURO-TUSS Cough Products and Sportsbet have signed on as sponsors of The Agenda Setters.
Maclean said there will be at least an additional six hours of ancillary viewing, largely magazine style programme, to complement live coverage of AFL games.
He said that Seven’s summer of cricket, which was also the first time Seven had digital streaming rights to the test series and Big Bash, has “given us confidence that we head into the AFL in terms of the forecasts that we’ve made.
“Our digital sell-through from a revenue point of view, has been really, really strong,” Maclean said.
Over the summer of cricket, Seven added 600,000 new users and active daily users on 7plus was up 70 per cent in December over the previous year.
“Not only are they streaming cricket, they are engaging with other content as well… there was a big uptick of 47 per cent in December,” Maclean added.
“Importantly, it’s adding significant incremental reach to campaigns, amongst the demos for people aged 16 to 39 for instance, which could be in the ballpark of 25 per cent to 30 per cent incremental reach on what broadcast is generating.”
