More than 20 local series, news and current affairs content, sports and new, exclusive content across 7plus will be on the Seven Network in 2025.
Next year, the screens of Seven will be home to 25 local entertainment shows, including tentpole shows that won more audiences this year on TV, digital or both – Farmer Wants A Wife, Australian Idol, My Kitchen Rules, The Voice, Dancing With The Stars and The 1% Club.
As it heads into its 37th season in 2025, Home and Away reigns as Australia’s most watched drama series and the biggest show on 7plus. Seven’s drama slate next year also includes the third season of drama RFDS.
Newcomers to Seven’s local line up in 2025 will include Stranded On Honeymoon Island, Once In A Lifetime, Jim Jefferies And Friends, all-new First Dates and the special events Working Class Man (the story of Jimmy Barnes), Live It Up: The Mental As Anything Story and Cold Chisel Live: 50th Anniversary Tour.
A unique social experiment, Stranded on Honeymoon Island puts adventure, survival and, above all, isolation at the heart of this quest for love. The couples are matched by experts following a speed dating event, but they don’t know which partner has been chosen for them until they see them at the intimate commitment ceremony.
Immediately after committing themselves to each other, they are abandoned on their own deserted tropical islands for the adventure of a lifetime.
In Once In A Lifetime, vet Dr Chris Brown embarks on global wildlife journeys, joined by Australian personalities (including Mick Molloy, Amanda Keller, Kate Ritchie and Matt Preston) as his untrained and unqualified veterinary assistants.
Together, they help iconic animals while navigating unpredictable and often humorous situations. From saving endangered species to facing wild dangers, these duos experience the raw beauty of nature.
In 2025, the host of Seven’s The 1% Club steps into his own stand-up show, Jim Jefferies And Friends. Featuring Dave Hughes, Jimeoin, Arj Barker, Tommy Little, Nikki Osborne, Mel Buttle, Felicity Ward and many more, this strictly adults-only affair will see Jefferies as master of ceremonies.
Australian music will take centre stage on Seven next year with Cold Chisel’s 50th anniversary tour; Working Class Man, a documentary based on Jimmy Barnes’ book and featuring the singer telling his story; and Live It Up: The Mental As Anything Story, a hilarious and moving documentary about the band.
After celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, lifestyle show – Better Homes and Gardens – returns, while TV WEEK Gold Logie winner Larry Emdur and the Chasers are back for a new season of The Chase Australia.
Also coming in 2025 are new seasons of Border Security: Australia’s Front Line and Highway Patrol, plus The Hunters, The Rise And Fall Of Kings Cross, The Great Outdoors and Off The Grid with Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge.
The TV WEEK Logie Awards will be on Seven and 7plus again in 2025, along with other special events including Melbourne’s Good Friday Appeal, Sydney’s Carols In The Domain and the Channel 7 Telethon in Perth, which raised a record $83.3 million last month.
Seven chief content officer, Brook Hall, said from the content ‘spine’ of Sunrise, The Morning Show, The Chase Australia, 7NEWS, Home and Away and Better Homes and Gardens, to increasingly popular tentpoles such as Farmer Wants A Wife, Australian Idol, The Voice, My Kitchen Rules, The 1% Club and Dancing With The Stars, Seven has a powerful year-long schedule that will keep Australians connected and entertained.
“Our new tentpoles including Stranded On Honeymoon Island and Once In A Lifetime will further strengthen our 7.30pm line up," he said.
"While other networks’ line ups go through peaks and troughs, we consistently deliver audiences year-round across Seven and 7plus.”
In 2025, Seven is taking a “7plus first” approach to all of its new overseas programming including Suits: LA, Doc, The Hunting Party, Grosse Pointe Garden Society, St Denis Medical, Ludwig and The Americas.
Hall said the company plans to drop one, premium new series on 7plus every single month during 2025, including shows like Suits: LA, The Americas and much more.
From NBC comes Suits: LA, in which Ted Black, a former federal prosecutor from New York, reinvents himself representing the most powerful clients in Los Angeles; Grosse Pointe Garden Society, which centres on four members of a suburban garden club, all from different walks of life, who get caught up in murder and mischief; and The Hunting Party, a crime procedural about a small team of investigators who are assembled to track down and capture most dangerous killers who have just escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist.
From BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the creators of Planet Earth and Blue Planet, in association with Universal Television
Alternative Studio, The Americas is an 11-part tentpole event series, narrated by Tom Hanks.
Sport offering headlined by AFL and cricket
Seven’s 2024-25 summer of cricket will be its strongest in years, including the Australia vs India Test showdown, the Women’s Ashes, BBL and WBBL.
Next year will bring a wealth of sport on Seven and 7plus Sport with AFL, AFLW, the Brownlow Medal, Supercars Championship including the Bathurst 1000, NFL and Superbowl LIX, horse racing 52 weeks of the year, LIV Golf, surfing,
cycling, athletics, netball, hockey, extreme sports, and much more.
Seven will present AFL content every day of the week during the 2025 season, including games on 22 Friday nights, 15 Thursday nights, 23 Sundays, eight Saturday nights, six marquee games, three roving marquee games, every game in the
Finals Series and – exclusive to Seven and 7plus – the Brownlow Medal and the AFL Grand Final.
The Front Bar’s regular AFL shows and cricket and year-in-review specials return in 2025, along with a series of brand new AFL offerings for Seven and 7plus Sport, giving footy fans access to fresh AFL content every single day. The AFL programs include The Agenda Setters, Unfiltered, Extra Time, Sunday Footy Feast, The Wash Up, Kane’s Call, podcasts and more.
Seven is also commissioning a pre-season documentary inside an AFL club, in the lead up to the season, to run after The Front Bar titled Full Sweat.
The 7plus Sport and Seven AFL team are also working on an alternative kids’ commentary for selected Sunday afternoon matches.
Seven Network director of sport, Chris Jones, said the 2024 AFL season was extraordinary.
"A year for the ages, but we’re even more excited about what’s to come in 2025, he said.
“We felt it was time to change it up, to prepare for our new and younger audiences, and we’ve welcomed some fresh faces to help us reset the AFL media landscape for good.
“New recruits including Kane Cornes, Nick Riewoldt and others will be joining our established commentary team. They make us more dynamic and drive our strategy to have a seven-days-a-week football offering."
Jones said that one of the first things Seven identified was that if it wanted to be the home of footy, it needed to fill out the offering and create the best programs in the land.
“From Monday to Friday every night, there will be AFL content to watch or stream on Seven and 7plus Sport," he said.
"So, with more nights of footy programming throughout the 2025 AFL Premiership Season, as well as live match broadcasts streamed on 7plus Sport for the first time, there has never been a more exciting time for AFL fans.
“The seven-day-a-week AFL offering will be amplified on 7plus Sport, with replays, minis, highlights, video on demand, and unique exclusive content from the nightly magazine programs, which will be streamed live as well. 7plus Sport will again feature Club Hubs, encouraging AFL clubs to present their bespoke content specific to their fans.
"We will work to amplify that content, giving it national reach.”
Seven’s head of sport digital, Kirsty Bradmore, said from this summer, Australians can at last watch cricket live and free on any device, anytime, anywhere.
“But on 7plus, the offering is much, much more than your traditional broadcast coverage," she said.
"We’re introducing two distinct alternative commentaries this summer: the first is Hindi commentary for all Australia vs India Test matches, tapping into an audience with an unparalleled passion for the game.
“The second alternative commentary will be from the comedic duo The Grade Cricketer. Covering a selection of BBL matches, they will bring a light-hearted take on the games aimed at younger fans and die-hard supporters alike."
Bradmore said providing alternate streams on 7plus creates new opportunities to partner with Seven, including a short-form offering of bite-sized, consumable products, such as minis, highlights and full match replays.
“The 7plus Cricket Hub will showcase upcoming and live events, featuring countdowns and notifications for match start times," she said.
“BBL clubs will have dedicated hubs featuring curated content from the Seven team and bespoke content created by the clubs themselves. Additionally, 7plus will provide highlights for every match, including exclusive content from Fox, offering bite-sized summaries for those who missed the live streams.”
News and current affairs to increase in 2025
Seven’s commitment to bringing all Australians the best and most up-to-date news and current affairs will increase in 2025, with a new hour-long 12 noon bulletin.
It comes on the back of Seven adding an extra half hour to The Morning Show, which will now run from 9am to noon.
They will join Seven’s news and current affairs programs, from Australia’s #1 nightly news program 7NEWS and the #1 breakfast show Sunrise to 7NEWS Spotlight, Weekend Sunrise and The Latest from 7NEWS.
Seven Network director of news and current affairs and Seven West Media editor-in-chief, Anthony De Ceglie, said in an increasingly dystopian world of conspiracy theorists and deepfakes and misinformation, Seven's journalism has never been more important.
“On any given day, 10 of the 24 hours on Seven are proudly produced by the 7NEWS team, from Sunrise and The Morning Show to our morning, afternoon, prime-time 6.00pm and late-night bulletins, plus 7NEWS Spotlight on Sunday nights," he said.
"7NEWS.com.au is one of the most popular news sites in the country and there is also Australia’s only digital evening newspaper, The Nightly.”
De Ceglie said Australian audiences had never been more engaged with news and current affairs, as shown by The Morning Show co-host Larry Emdur winning the TV WEEK Logie Awards Gold Logie this year.
He also said the new hour-long 12 noon bulletin would be a game-changer that would not only look at breaking news headlines but also have room for in-depth discussion and debate.
“We know audiences are changing," he said.
"The race for eyeballs has never been more crowded. We’re producing modern and dynamic content for high value audiences that have never been more engaged or informed with the news."
A 'massive' year for 7plus
After growing more than 30% this year, 7will step into next year with a powerful line up of new content.
The arrival of AFL and cricket on 7plus mean that, for the first time, the two most popular sports in Australia will be available to stream, for free.
The new “7plus first” strategy for new overseas programming will see a premium new series launch on 7plus every single month from now – starting with Murder In A Small Town next week – and across all of 2025.
Seven Group MD of digital, Gereurd Roberts, said the launch of 7plus Sport in September represented the most significant change in Australian sport in decades.
"For the very first time, all Australians will be able to watch AFL and cricket anywhere, at any time and on any device – live and free," he said.
"To say it is a game changer for fans, sporting organisations and advertisers is a massive understatement.
“AFL and cricket will bring new, high value audiences to 7plus. And we already know from the AFL Grand Final and other sports that these audiences do not cannibalise the broadcast audience. They are new, younger and often hard to reach.”
The growth of 7plus is underpinned by its premium content library and first-run exclusives, as well as Seven hits such as Farmer Wants A Wife, The Voice, Australian Idol and My Kitchen Rules; overseas drama series; exclusive content; and the most streamed drama in Australia – Home and Away.
7plus now has more than 50 channels, the viewing of which has jumped more than 30% this year.
Roberts said at 7plus, Seven talks about a bonfires and fireworks strategy.
"The bonfires are the library content, the show people watch every day, and they are growing. The first-run exclusives are the fireworks, the shows that deliver audiences spikes and bring new people to 7plus," he said.
“It’s a strategy that is working. More than 40% of 7plus’ active daily users only watch 7plus exclusives – premium library or first-run content, on demand. They treat 7plus in exactly the same way they treat a paid streaming service. And now with one new ‘firework’ a month, that number will grow.
“7plus is not just a BVOD service. It’s moved way beyond that. It is premium digital video, with premium content across entertainment, sport and news. It’s a premium user experience and ad experience, with less than six minutes of ads per hour on exclusive VOD. It’s a true streaming service, but with daily audience scale."
Half of the content on 7plus is exclusive to the platform, including the best of overseas content from key partners such as NBCUniversal, Disney, ITV Studios and Sony.
New exclusive content on 7plus in 2025 includes Suits: LA, Grosse Pointe Garden Society, The Hunting Party, The Americas, St Denis Medical, Doc, Ludwig and The Crow Girl. Returning overseas favourites include The Rookie, 9-1-1, 9-1-1 Lonestar, The Irrational and Alert: Missing Persons Unit, plus 7Bravo shows including Below Deck Down Under, Below Deck, Below Deck Mediterranean, Deadly Waters with Captain Lee, Paris & Nicole: The Encore and Real Housewives of New York City.
Seven West Media MD and CEO, Jeff Howard, said Seven is passionately focused on creating and delivering valuable connections.
"We’re proudly a content business. Every day, our content connects with an audience that is growing. We understand that audience through our data platforms, delivering deep insights for our partners," he said.
“Millions of Australians connect with one of our publishing, broadcast and digital platforms every day, every week, every month. To make that happen, every year we create, collate and curate thousands of hours of local content.
"Our streaming audience continues to grow at a rapid rate. 7plus is set to soar from late November with cricket and again in March with AFL, both available on a free streamer for the first time,” he said.
Howard said the company's ambition is to be ahead of the curve, which is why Seven has led the way with AI company Databricks to accurately predict audiences, stepped up personalisation, targeting and UX on 7plus and created Phoenix, the world’s most advanced total TV trading system.
“Our aim for 2025 is to foster a stronger relationship with our partners," he said.
"Through expanded content, enhanced data capabilities, and a focus on responsible AI integration, we will
build deep and meaningful connections that drive growth for both Seven West Media and our valued clients."
Seven Group MD of television, Angus Ross, said Australian production is at the heart of everything the network does.
"We spend more than $700 million across our three content pillars of news, sport and entertainment to deliver mass audience and reach every single day of the year," he said.
“The biggest shows and most reliable formats in the world are on Seven and 7plus including Home and Away, Australian Idol, Farmer Wants A Wife, Dancing With The Stars, The Voice, My Kitchen Rules and The 1% Club. In 2025 they will be joined by two brand-new tentpole formats – Stranded On Honeymoon Island and Once In A Lifetime – plus a lot more.
“From AFL and cricket to Supercars and horse racing, we are Australia’s home of sport, delivering the biggest and most engaged sport audiences across Seven and 7plus Sport all year round. Our news and current affairs content – led by 7NEWS, Sunrise, 7NEWS Spotlight, The Nightly and 7NEWS.com.au – keeps all of Australia informed, while 7plus
goes from strength to strength with its deep library and exclusive content,” he said.
Seven national television sales director, Katie Finney, said Seven, it is passionate about connecting advertising partners with high-value audiences at scale through content that Australians love.
"With our audience insights via 7REDiQ, AI-driven predictability, and the streamlined trading process via Phoenix, we are committed to being better business partners than ever," she said.
"Our focus is on driving improved business outcomes and growth for our partners in 2025.”
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.