Coming to Seven Sport next week
World Athletics U20 Championships Oregon
Thursday 6 August - see guide for details 7Mate / Two
The world’s best young athletes battle for global success as the 2026 World Athletics U20 Championships get underway, live from Hayward Field in Oregon.
Calcio Italiano Football
Wednesday 5 August; See guide for details Seven/7Mate, 7Two
Saturday 8 August; See guide for details
The most successful and widely supported clubs in world football, AC Milan and Inter, bring their legacy and pride to the pitch at Optus Stadium. Kick Off: 9pm AEST
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Second time Italian football in Perth is shown on the screens of Seven (last time it was 7flix). I am not sure why 10 did not bid for the rights?
With Gout Gout pulling out due to injury, I think Seven may not bother to send Bruce McAvaney & Co. to Oregon to commentate on the events, and will instead rely on the world feed.
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There could well have been something in the agreement with the WA government and a sponsorship with Seven?
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Seven secures exclusive Australian free-to-air rights for the historic NFL game and the 2026 season
In a landmark moment for Australian sports broadcasting, the Seven Network today announced it has secured the exclusive domestic rights for the 2026 NFL season. This historic broadcast agreement includes the first-ever regular season NFL game on Australian soil, live from the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Friday, 11 September, broadcast on Seven and 7plus Sport.
Fans across the nation will have front-row seats as one of the NFL’s fiercest rivalries - the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams - come together for the local morning broadcast.
As the undisputed free-to-air home of the NFL in Australia, Seven and 7plus Sport will deliver comprehensive coverage throughout the full 2026 season, including key weekly matches, the playoffs, and the ultimate sporting spectacle: the Super Bowl.
Beyond the historic MCG game, Seven will broadcast a bumper weekly lineup of NFL action throughout the 2026 season, bringing fans the best games every week. Fans can look forward to even more analysis this season as Seven extends its dedicated weekly show, NFL Tailgate, to twice a week. The expanded lineup will deliver the latest news, analysis, and highlights from across the league, with a comprehensive Friday preview program followed by a Monday morning review show.
Southern Cross Media Group’s Managing Director and CEO, Rohan Lund said: “Seven’s dominance in sport is unmatched and securing the free to air exclusive rights to the NFL, headlined by the historic first regular season game at the MCG, is a landmark moment. Australians possess an unrivalled passion for live sport, and our focus is on bringing the world’s biggest sporting spectacles to local audiences completely free. By combining the scale of free-to-air broadcast with the flexibility of 7plus Sport, our multi-platform expertise ensures that every fan, no matter how or where they watch, gets a front-row seat to the action.
“The NFL has captured the imagination of local fans like never before. We look forward to bringing the incredible energy of this global phenomenon to life, delivering an unforgettable, world-class experience for both our audiences and commercial partners.”
NFL General Manager Australia and New Zealand, Charlotte Offord, said: “Growing fandom in Australia and globally is at the core of the NFL’s international strategy, and being able to work together with great media partners like the Seven Network to reach the widest audiences is critical to us being able to achieve that. The 2026 season will see Australian fans able to access comprehensive broadcast coverage live and free on Seven and 7plus Sport, including key tent pole moments like the NFL Melbourne Game and Super Bowl LXI. This market continues to be a priority for the NFL, and we are excited to be working with Seven to build on the passion of our existing fans while welcoming new ones to experience the sport together.”
Southern Cross Media Group’s Director of Sport, TV, Audio and Streaming, Chris Jones said: “Securing the NFL rights is a huge win for Seven and couldn’t come at a better time. With the first-ever regular season NFL game heading to Melbourne, we’re seeing the incredible momentum the sport has built across Australia. Fan interest has never been stronger, and audiences are embracing the league in record numbers. This acquisition delivers a powerful back end to the year of sport, adding another premium global property to an already outstanding sporting calendar.”
Seven’s game-day coverage on Friday, 11 September will begin with a special broadcast of Sunrise live from Melbourne, before the main game coverage goes to air from 9.00am AEST.
The NFL agreement further reinforces Seven’s commitment to delivering the world’s biggest sports to Australian audiences for free. The blockbuster addition strengthens an extraordinary back end of the year on 7SPORT, which features the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, Australia v Bangladesh Test Series, the AFL Finals Series, the Summer of Cricket, the Repco Supercars Championship Bathurst 1000, and an epic Spring Racing Carnival.
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Interesting that the NFL has only renewed its FTA deal with Seven until the end of Super Bowl LXI. Could it be a hint that the next rights deal will be open tender?
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That press release is a heck of a lot of words to not say how many games per week or if there are any changes from the previous rights.
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I think it’s recently it’s typically been 1 year renewals?
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I assume it will be same as the past season with Thursday Night Football & 2 Sunday arvo games on 7mate.
This headline on the morning show is very misleading since they don’t have the entire NFL season on 7, just 2-3 games a week
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Wording certainly seems like they have (excluding the worldwide games) the rights to it all?
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I agree the wording implies that, but given the ongoing arrangement with DAZN to provide GamePass, I can’t see that the NFL would be contractually able to provide a broadcaster/streamer with access to every game. At best, perhaps Seven could get access to every game produced with a world feed, which would add up to TNF (Amazon’s non-domestic feed) plus the A & B game of each Sunday CBS/Fox 1pm, most CBS/Fox 4:05pm, the A of the CBS/Fox 4:25, and SNF. Possibly also the world feed of MNF although I suspect ESPN AU/NZ has exclusivity on that (aside from GamePass and playoffs).
That also leaves the question of where that leaves ESPN AU/NZ. They’re airing some pre-season so it can be assumed they have rights to games during the regular season. Outside of MNF, if the above is true of Seven’s rights, perhaps ESPN go back to running RedZone (especially as ESPN now owns NFL Network) plus simulcast of TNF and SNF.
However, I don’t think the above is likely. I’m instead going to focus on this line from the press release
I suspect what this means is a reversal of the roles in the previous rights agreement between Seven and ESPN. Under the previous rights, ESPN got first pick of the Sunday 1pm and 4:05pm/4:25pm games, Seven got second pick, and ESPN2 got third pick of the 1pms. I would interpret the press release to indicate that Seven may now have first pick, with ESPN1/2 having 2nd and 3rd. Possibly 7+ gets a 1pm game which might mean Seven get 1st pick, ESPN gets 2nd, 7+ gets 3rd, ESPN2 gets 4th. “Best games every week” would also imply that SNF should return to Seven as this is the NFL’s marquee timeslot. NFL Tailgate’s “Monday morning review show” could act as a filler in the 30-60 minutes between the Sunday afternoon and SNF games, just as NFL Blitz does on ESPN.
All speculation of course. Sometimes I wonder if whoever writes vague rights announcement press releases gets a kick out of seeing how their words are twisted and interpreted.
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Yes, last year was a one year agreement. Very telling despite having the Aussie match this time, unable to achieve the higher money figure they want for a longer term agreement.
Truly a landmark moment that we’ve managed to limp on for another season instead of it going somewhere else or worse, untelevised.
I know corporate wordplay, but even that is a massive stretch.
Is there an actual autonomous process of picking games in AU or just following the A/B/C designation in America?
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It’s an autonomous process. There were more than a few occasions last season where the games which were top pick of either CBS or Fox in a timeslot didn’t get picked by ESPN or Seven and something from much further down the list got picked instead. Often those picks ended up being more competitive matches.
I suppose the Australian broadcasters don’t have to rank their games according to what will rate best in specific US markets, so don’t have to factor in team bias for/against in those markets when making their selections.
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It also highlights Southern Cross Media’s tendency to overhype and oversell announcements as a way of distracting from other realities. They sign agreements like these and then, all of a sudden, it’s touted as a “massive coup” for the network or framed as “continuing a long tradition,” regardless of the broader context.
It’s not Seven’s fault if the NFL are deciding to sell the FTA rights on a year-by-year basis.
Assume this is the feed Seven will take?
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