Martin Medcraf.
By Martin Medcraf, Sport Sales and Brand Partnerships Director, Foxtel Media
Get ready - the 2025 AFL season is almost here! This year we’ve supercharged our reach, audiences and buys as we anticipate a record-breaking festival of footy.
Last year’s AFL season was spectacularly action-packed and was the most watched AFL season ever across our platforms, with viewership growing 33% across Foxtel platforms. The Geelong Cats vs Brisbane Lions preliminary final game recorded an average audience of 860,000, breaking records as the most-watched and most-streamed AFL game of all time across Foxtel platforms.
Our brand partners were also keen for a slice of the action, with 30 sponsors joining us last year. Moreover, they were able to plan their campaigns using Kantar Media-analysed data for more accurate viewership figures and audience insights. Amazingly, every campaign ended up overdelivering last season.
With the new season approaching, we thought we would get clear on Foxtel’s AFL rights and the fantastic opportunities available to brands with Foxtel Media.
The best rights to the best games
Starting in the 2025 season and continuing until 2031, Fox Footy on Kayo Sports and Foxtel will be the exclusive home for AFL Saturday matches in Victoria and Tasmania for every round of the home and away season and nationally for at least the first eight rounds of play.
Here’s the state breakdown:
- Viewers in Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory will be able to watch from the Opening Round to Round 24 exclusively and live on Foxtel Platforms.
- Viewers in New South Wales and Queensland will be able to watch from the Opening Round to Round 10 exclusively and live on Foxtel Platforms.
- Viewers in South Australia and Western Australia will be able to watch from the Open Round to Round 8 exclusively and live on Foxtel Platforms.
For the first time, Fox Footy will also feature its own commentary teams and graphics for every match across the round. "Super Saturday LIVE" is a new offering for Kayo Sports and Foxtel subscribers that will see live AFL coverage on Fox Footy in 4K every week including more analysis, new talent, programming and every blockbuster match.
And this season, BINGE subscribers will be able to get in on all the action with Thursday, Friday and Sunday matches available on the platform. This means brands will be able to capture a whole new audience of casual fans, extending your reach and messaging.
And the sports viewing action doesn’t stop there! We’ve got the rights for netball, golf, F1 and MotoGP rights through to 2026, NRL/NRLW through to 2027, UFC to 2028 and cricket and AFL/AFLW until 2031.
Our sports obsessed audiences
The Foxtel Group has massive audience scale across our network, with over 10 million in national reach and Foxtel product in every second household. We’re also beating the average when it comes to sports viewership- in 2024 87% of Aussies watched live sport but this was 91% for Foxtel audiences. 1.46 million viewers exclusively watch AFL on FOX Footy, and 1.5 million exclusively watch NRL on Fox League.
Our flagship sports platform, Kayo Sports, also continues to go from strength to strength. And busting stereotypes that only men watch sports, more than one in three (36%) of Kayo’s viewers are female. We’re also expecting these numbers to increase as rising costs encourage more viewers to look for at-home entertainment options.
Accordingly, we’re kicking things up a notch. We’re upgrading Kayo’s mobile format, offering a more social-style user experience that allows fans to keep up to date through highlights and off-the-field content. Stay tuned for more to come.
Our sports obsessed audiences deliver great results for our brand partners. Year-on-year we’ve seen 10% growth on our ad-enabled streaming tiers and over 40% growth in buyable impressions. Reach is also supercharged when you buy across our portfolio, with only 4-7% overlap between our different channels.
How Foxtel viewers spend
Foxtel viewers spend 34% more than the average Australian and 73% more than non-Foxtel customers in the travel category. Moreover, Kayo and BINGE subscribers spend 50% more in the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) category than non-subscribers.
We’re also taking our spending insights to the next level with our new partnership with Commbank IQ. Foxtel Media will leverage the de-identified data set of Australia’s largest bank with over 7 million people and provide unique insights into purchasing behaviour through de-identified payment data, enabling tracking on precisely how campaigns convert to sales. It’s also a fully privacy compliant solution - vital in the new era of privacy-focused advertising.
Via CommBank iQ’s industry analysis, brands will be able to understand the market size and performance of relevant industries, providing an advantage to protect and grow their share among competitors.
Foxtel Media is also leveraging CommBank iQ to add over 100 new attributes for audience segmentation, enhancing its addressable offering. This makes it easier for brands to target viewers and tailor ads to match the content being watched.
The 2025 AFL season is an exceptional opportunity for brands looking to reach an engaged, sports-obsessed audience through exclusive coverage on Foxtel platforms. With enhanced content and a wider reach, including Kayo Sports and BINGE, brands can tap into a growing fanbase while leveraging cutting-edge data insights and precise targeting. This is the perfect chance to align with one of Australia’s most beloved sports, boost brand visibility, and drive meaningful engagement with an audience that not only watches but actively spends across key categories, ensuring high-impact results for your campaigns.
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