Would suggest 7 preferred Thursday night games to Saturday games (probably would’ve preferred to lose the Sunday games like they did this year) and Foxtel wanted an exclusive day like they do for most of the NRL season.
Not sure where the CBA with the players ended up landing but there was the possibility of more Saturday night games in rounds 9-15 in Victoria if they couldn’t schedule 23 Thursday night games
I think it’s based on IP address now. Can get 7Plus to show 7 Sydney now by switching to a Sydney VPN server, for example.
Not sure how long it’s been for or if it’s been mentioned but I just noticed on the Border Security eps on 7Plus that there was a message saying they were unable to play the AFL however they will be able to play the AFL live on 7plus when the new broadcast arrangement starts in 2025.
Fox won’t be happy with that. I wouldn’t be surprised if they insists 7Plus block VPNs like Kayo currently does.
They’ll also have exclusivity over some quality games. But agree the selling point is (and continues to be) that subscribers can watch every game (except the GF) live
They probably do block VPNs in theory but it’s a game of whack a mole, although they might be encouraged to whack a few more moles.
And that there are no ad-breaks during play and coverage is in 4k.
side note: this all seems to have become a hot topic today! 
I think we’re forgetting the cost $$$ side of things here especially this current environment, a major if not sole factor for many people, thus at Seven’s advantage a bit from next year.
But yes, if money is no problem, of course Foxtel Go or Kayo is the one to choose.
I’d also argue there’s a large portion of people who do not watch every game nor care for certain teams, contests or venues. There’s multiple types of fan, starting with die-hard/hard core, down.
Yes very good point, 7Plus made it a lot harder some years back, but there are definitely still ways around it, including masking location/GPS. You’d have to imagine these big companies paying these fees are not fools and would have departments (by next year) well across all this and most likely even preventing that.
Nine already have streaming rights for the NRL and we’ve not seen a mass exodus from Kayo (and we know that the NRL ratings on the Fox platforms are often stronger than the AFL rights). That’s not to say there won’t be any impact, I think some caution is necessary in predicting what next year’s numbers will look like.
I expect Fox will go hard at promoting that their coverage will have Fox’s own commentary teams at all games too.
I’ll be interested to see how it works in places like here (Albury), we get Victorian TV and are part of the Regional Victorian market but as it stands we get allocated to NSW when you log on to the streaming apps like 7Plus.
Could mean a bit of a loophole where we can get extra Swans/Giants games on 7Plus for free that we would not otherwise get on terrestrial (and likewise, might be some Victorian games not shown as a result).
When did nine pick up streaming rights for the NRL? I could’ve sworn it was before Kayo came into existence but could defs be mistaken.
Good point. I do know the local ABC TV Albury transmitter at Mount Baranduda gets switched over to the NSW state feed for every NSW state election period. This is so as those on the NSW side of the border get to see the NSW ABC 7pm state bulletin and the free political party announcements by NSW state candidates in the period leading up to election day. The VIC state feed is restored usually the day after NSW election night coverage. This also used to occur in Broken Hill too, as Broken Hill is technically part of the SA Regional market, but the ABC polled residents about 20 years ago to see if they wanted to stay with the NSW state feed full time, and they did. So, in Broken Hill, all ABC TV programming is screened 30 minutes ahead of local time.
Aren’t these still tailored for metro markets? Of course until recent years regional was Prime Media not Seven West Media.
Regional is complicated with so many sub-markets and different affiliations and owners.
I’m guessing if regional viewers access bvod, the location would just be like a generic state feed (e.g.) 9Now accessed in Ballarat: LCN 90 Melbourne (Channel 9HD Melbourne) with their ads and promos, etc? Rather than WIN being interconnected and all.
Really? I thought they have the NSW programming on TV since radio takes SA programming, and also so Broken Hill residents can access coverage of NSW state politics.
Wasn’t the case up until about 20 years ago for ABC TV in Broken Hill.
When TV started in Broken Hill in the mid 1960s, historically, programming on both ABLN2 and BKN7 mostly came from Adelaide being there was no direct links from Sydney, only from Adelaide. This also fitted in with the local 30 minute time zone that matched SA for scheduling on those 2 stations.
Sounds about right. I’ve noticed than during weekday mornings ABC Broken Hill takes the NSW radio bulletins instead of SA’s.
They can do that when they are locally staffed. Hopefully they run the NSW ones at the bottom of the hour live, and not delayed at the top of the hour?
NSW one’s are delayed, as Broken Hill has it’s own local bulletins or headlines at the bottom of the hour. Although, haven’t checked since they switched to taking all national programs live, so could have changed.
That’s correct- the Victorian feed on 7Plus/9Now etc. is a Melbourne feed, and likewise the NSW feed is from Sydney.
This has actually ceased as of last year’s NSW election and now they run with the Victorian feed even during NSW elections- I assume the ABC is satisfied that the coverage on the ABC News Channel is sufficient and that most political announcements are broadcast through other means such as online. Definitely used to happen in previous election periods though.
Back when the ABC had state football and rugby on a Saturday afternoon, it used to be an interesting quirk to get the Shute Shield for a couple of weeks instead of the VFL.
7+ used to have the ability to change post code etc (maybe 6-7 years ago) and you could get other states programming etc. Now I think they use your location if enabled on ur phone for the app, not sure about their website.
But with 7 having the rights to Fox games, I think Fox would be making sure that people can’t exploit any loopholes on 7+ to stream