Seven Sport


Seven Sport is the brand and production department under which all sporting events on the Australian Seven Network are broadcast. It broadcasts some of Australia's most prominent sporting events, such as the AFL and cricket, as well as horse racing and motor racing.
Seven Sport previously broadcast tennis and the Olympics & Paralympics for the best part of half a century, exclusively since the early 1970s and Moscow 1980 respectively. Seven lost the broadcast rights to both to arch-rival the Nine Network in 2018 and 2022 respectively. It caused the biggest ever 'shake-up' of Australian television sports broadcasting with widespread media coverage and public discussion at the time.
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History

Australian rules football

From the first year of television in Australia in 1956 to 2001, Seven was the main broadcaster of the VFL/AFL. From 1974 to 1986 Seven was along with the ABC the main broadcaster of the VFL showing replays and highlights of matches played that Saturday. In 1977 Seven paid the VFL $500,000 to broadcast the Grand Final and a further $500,000 to broadcast the Grand Final Replay also live with the drawn match watch by 1.2 Million viewers at the time the biggest daytime audience in Australia television history. In 1987, after taken over by new ownership from Sydney, HSV-7 lost the VFL rights to Broadcom who on sold the rights in Victoria to the ABC after offering less money compared to the previous year, the rights were regained the next year.
In 2001 the Seven Network announced that after 45 years as the official broadcaster of the VFL/AFL that it would finished its partnership at the end of the season. Nine and Ten entered a joint rights deal with pay TV provider Foxtel to ensure that all eight matches of each round were televised, starting in 2002 and concluding in 2006. At the time and being the only broadcaster, Seven broadcast only one match at a timeslot at a time and showed highlights of other matches that were not broadcast.
On 5 January 2006, Seven regained the rights to the AFL in the following broadcast deal, covering the period between 2007 and 2011 inclusive, in a joint contract with Ten and Foxtel. The cost of the deal was A$780 million, an A$280 million increase on the Nine/Ten/Foxtel 2002-2006 joint broadcast venture. Under the deal, Seven and Ten alternated the Brownlow Medal ceremonies and the AFL Grand Final; Seven televised the Friday night and Sunday afternoon Premiership season matches, while Ten televised the two Saturday matches and Foxtel televising the rest. Both Seven and Ten alternate in show the NAB Cup Grand Final, the Brownlow Medal count and the AFL Grand Final.
In 2011, it was announced that Seven and Foxtel would share the football broadcast rights from 2012 to 2016, bringing Ten's 10-year run to an end. Under the new deal, Seven would televise four games per week, and Foxtel would simulcast coverage of Seven's games and broadcast the other five weekly games live and exclusive. Seven televised the entire finals series, with Foxtel simulcasting all finals except for the Grand Final, which was televised live and exclusively by Seven. The deal required Seven to televise all but the Saturday afternoon match live into Victoria and Tasmania; all four games were shown live into the northern states on 7mate and games were shown live or on delay into Western Australia and South Australia depending on Seven's television schedule.
In 2015, Seven commenced broadcasting the WAFL and VFL showing one match a week and all finals from both competitions that did not clash with AFL games in each market, this followed the previous year where SANFL were being broadcast on under the same agreement. For both the WAFL and SANFL, it was the first time since 1987 that each league were broadcast on Seven with all three being on Seven after long association with the ABC ending the previous year.
Also announced in 2015 that Seven would again be the sole free-to-air broadcaster of AFL matches, for the period between 2017 and 2022. Under the deal, Seven no longer televises the Saturday afternoon match into Victoria, however, matches in this timeslot involving interstate teams continue to be televised into their respective markets. Controversially, however, up to three matches involving each of all four of the Western Australia and South Australia clubs are televised on a significant delay, with the telecast starting after the final siren has gone in real time.
Under a revised deal agreement, Channel Seven will show up to five matches per week live on their networks, with Fox Sports broadcasting each and every game on either a Fox Footy or Fox Sports 503. Two matches of both the Eagles and Dockers in WA and one match of both the Crows and Power in SA was shown on a significant delay in the shortened 2020 season. On June 11 the AFL and the Seven Network extended its current agreement until 2022 for an extra two until the end of 2024 with the deal virtually the same as the original one signed prior to 2017.
In 2022, Seven was again announced as the sole free-to-air broadcaster of AFL matches, for the period between 2025 and 2031. Under the deal, Seven will broadcast Thursday Night Football for the first 15 rounds of each season. However, they will not broadcast any Saturday Night matches until the final right rounds of the home-and-away season into Victoria.
This changed however, ahead of the 2025 season started, when it was announced that there would be Thursday night matches in all bar two rounds of the season with Seven to broadcast selected Sunday Night games throughout the season instead of Saturday Nights.
This meant that there weren’t any Saturday matches were broadcast into Victoria, Tasmania or the Northern Territory, these arrangements differ outside of those states, where every local team's match will be broadcast on free-to-air, though matches that fell on a Saturday in the first third of the season involving the Western Australia and South Australia clubs along with the New South Wales and Queensland clubs unlike previously, will be on a delay in their local market, similar to the previous deal but on a two-hour delay instead of three, after this stage matches will be shown live. Seven will continue to broadcast weekly Friday Night and Sunday Afternoon matches and for the first were able to live stream matches on their 7plus streaming platform.
In total, Seven produces an average of 3.5 matches a round in the AFL and AFLW seasons and 81 matches in the AFL home-and-away season overall, all AFL and AFLW finals and have exclusive rights to the AFL and AFLW grand finals and the Brownlow Medal count.

Olympics

The network's coverage of the 2000 Sydney Olympics attracted a TV audience of over 6.5 million Australians for the opening and closing ceremonies. The broadcast also ran on the short-lived C7 Sport subscription channel.
During its time as the broadcaster of the Olympic Games, it has won the Olympic Golden Rings for the Best Television coverage for the best television programme during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
During the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Seven and NBC Universal were the major recipients of the Golden Rings; with Seven taking the Golden Rings for the best Olympic Programme, the Silver Rings for the best Olympic feature, and the Bronze Rings for the Best Sports Coverage.
During Seven's coverage of the XXIX Olympiad, numerous complaints by the general Australian public were made to the Seven Network for several reasons, including the lack of a broadcast of events to which Australia is not competing in, too many advertisements and at inappropriate times during events and poor commentating of events. There has also been media speculation about the editing of Olympic events by Seven; how live sound from events is faded and the commentary sound is the prominent sound feature.
Seven had exclusive Australian free-to-air, pay television, online and mobile telephony broadcast rights to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The live telecast of the XXIX Olympiad was shared by both the Seven Network and SBS Television. Seven broadcast the opening and closing ceremonies and mainstream sports including swimming, athletics, rowing, cycling and gymnastics. In stark contrast, SBS TV provided complementary coverage focused on long-form events such as soccer, road cycling, volleyball, and table tennis.
Seven's coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics was widely criticised by viewers, with many angry at the networks contractual obligation to show AFL football over the Olympics. Viewers also complained that many team sports were delayed, with the absence of Roy and HG and with seemingly large amounts of advertising breaks during live events upsetting some viewers. Despite this, the International Olympic Committee awarded Seven the 'Golden Rings' award for "Best Olympic Programme". The award is given for the best overall Olympic coverage.
From 2016, Seven once again became the home of the Summer Olympic Games, Winter Olympic Games and the Summer Paralympic Games until 2022. In October 2020, the Seven Network announced it would be the home of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Commonwealth Games

Seven screened the 2002 Commonwealth Games from Manchester and were the official broadcaster of the 2018 Commonwealth Games on home soil on the Gold Coast in April 2018. In July 2022, Seven also broadcast the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
In 2025, the Seven Network has announced it has signed an exclusive agreement with Commonwealth Sport to become the official Australian broadcast media partner for the 2026 Commonwealth Games, which will take place in Glasgow, Scotland, from 23 July to 2 August, and the 2030 Commonwealth Games, for which the host selection process conducted by Commonwealth Sport is currently in progress.

Motor racing

From 1963 to 1997, Seven was the home of motor sport in Australia as they broadcast the Australian Touring Car Championship and the Bathurst 1000. Seven were the first broadcasters to use race cam in the 1979 Bathurst 1000, which allowed them to talk to the drivers mid-race.
The Seven commentary team included Evan Green, Will Hagon and Geoff Stone. It included Mike Raymond from 1977 to 1995 and Garry Wilkinson from 1978 to 1996. Neil Crompton reporting from the pits from around 1985, Mark Oastler, Doug Mulray, Allan Moffat and as a pit reporter Andy Raymond. At the Bathurst 1000, Sandy Roberts or Bruce McAvaney would be the host during the early to mid 1990s.
In 1997, Seven lost the rights to the ATCC to Network Ten, but still broadcast the Australian Super Touring Championship until the series' demise in 2001. In 2003, Seven Sport broadcast the Nations Cup and V8 Utes, before Network Ten broadcast the V8 Utes in 2005 after the collapse of organising body Procar Australia.
From 2007 to 2014, Seven regained the rights to V8 Supercars. The commentary team included Neil Crompton, Mark Skaife and Mark Larkham. From 2015, Seven Sport broadcasts the Bathurst 12 Hour endurance race.
In 2020, Seven regained the TV rights to the Supercars Championship, sharing the rights with Foxtel in a deal worth $200 million for 5 years. The new deal has Seven Sport show seven rounds of the Supercars Championship live and showing highlights of the rounds it is not able to televise.

Cricket

On 13 April 2018, Cricket Australia announced that the Seven Network had acquired free-to-air media rights to a package of events beginning in the 2018–19 season, under a six-year contract as part of a consortium with Foxtel. Seven would broadcast coverage of all test matches, Women's internationals, 43 Big Bash League matches per-season, and 23 Women's Big Bash League matches per-season. All events would be shared with the newly established Fox Cricket channel. This ended Nine's 45-year run as television rightsholder of international cricket in Australia.
In September 2020, it was reported that Seven was attempting to exit its contract, citing an alleged breach of contract surrounding the scheduling of the 2020–21 season, and that the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia would diminish the quality of the 2020–21 Big Bash League season. In November 2020, Seven lodged an affidavit in the Federal Court of Australia in Melbourne, seeking access to communications with the Board of Control for Cricket in India in regards to scheduling changes for India's 2020–21 tour of Australia. Seven took issue with the ODIs being moved to the start of the series rather than the test matches as they would be exclusive to Fox Cricket, and the final test would overlap the end of the holiday season, reducing potential viewership. Seven West Media CEO James Warburton argued that "there aren't many sports that would launch their season behind a paywall", and that the broadcaster wanted to be "fairly compensated for the value reduction caused by the changes to the schedule and other changes."
Despite its previous threats of legal action, it was announced on 3 January 2023 that had the Seven Network with Foxtel had signed a seven-year contract from the 2024–25 to 2030–31 Australian cricket seasons. Under the deal Seven continued to broadcast every home men’s test match and home women’s international, while the number of Big Bash League match was reduced with Seven showing 33 of the 40 regular season matches and every final and at least 23 matches in the Women’s Big Bash League season and every final. Legal proceedings that Seven had subsequently was dropped.
Seven Network broadcast the 2023 ICC World Test Championship Final as part of the deal with the ICC. IN 2025, Seven secured the right to broadcast the 2025 Australian Test tour of Sri Lanka.

Rugby League

In 2016, the Seven Network won the broadcasting rights deal to be the main broadcaster of the 2017 Rugby League World Cup in Australia, beating the other regular rugby league broadcasting channels of Fox League and the Nine Network to secure the deal.
In October 2025, it was announced Seven had secured the 2026 Rugby League World Cup and re-establish itself as the home of global rugby league action, uniting fans from across the nation. Rugby League will make its comeback to the Seven Network for the first time since 2017, with the broadcaster securing exclusive Australian rights to air the Rugby League World Cup 2026 live and free on Seven and 7plus Sport.

Theme

Seven Sport has used "Fanfare for the Common Man" by Emerson, Lake & Palmer as its theme since 1989. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Seven used the music piece for Sporting events such as: AFL, Australian Open and Australian Touring Car Championship. Up until 2011, an abridged version of the opening fanfare was used. The music piece returned for introductions of the networks sporting coverage since 2018 AFL Grand Final with a version of the Fanfare for the Common Man being used for all sporting coverage including AFL, Cricket, Horse Racing and Motorsport.

Events

Seven Sport holds broadcast rights to the following events:

Programs

Seven Sport has presented the following recurring programmes:
Current
Sport ProgramDate
Australian rules football The Front Bar2016–present
Australian rules football Friday Night Countdown2015–present
Australian rules football Armchair Experts2018–present
Australian rules football The Crows Show2015–present
Australian rules football FootyPlus2018–present
Australian rules football The Game2018–present
CricketThe Grade Cricketer2019–present
CricketThe Spin2021–present
American football Armchair Experts 2020–present
Australian rules football Sunday Footy Fest2021–present
Australian rules football Heater and Daisy Show2021–present
MotorsportSupercars 1012021–present
Motorsport7th Gear2021–present

Past
Sport ProgramDate
AllWorld of Sport1959–1987
AllSportsworld1988–2006
AllSanto, Sam and Ed's Sports Fever! 2012
AllRoad to Rio2016
Australian rules football The Bounce2010
Australian rules football Rex's Footy Panel1994–2003
Australian rules football The Club2002
Motor Racing V8Xtra2007–2014
Motor Racing Friday Night Live2012–2014
Motor Racing Shannons Legends of Motorsport2014–2015
Rugby league The Matty Johns Show2010
Australian rules football AFL Game Day2008–2020
Australian rules football Talking Footy1994–2004
2013–2020
Australian rules football The Kick2017–2019
Australian rules football Four Quarters2017–2019
Australian rules football Sunday Soapbox2016–2019

Staff and commentators

The following network personalities are seen across multiple Seven Sport events:

[Olympic Games]

Tokyo 2020

[Rio 2016]

Most Seven programs, except Sunrise and The Chase Australia, went on hiatus during Seven's broadcast of the Olympic Games.

[Beijing 2008]

Paralympic Games

[Rio 2016]

Commonwealth Games

[Gold Coast 2018]

Australian Rules Football

As Seven is forced to show viewers in Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland games featuring their respective teams live, sometimes it will show a different game at the same time into these markets then into the rest of Australia. On these occasions, it will pick up Fox Footy's coverage of the match.

AFL

Current
Play-by-play commentators
Special comments
Boundary riders
Journalists
  • Mitch Cleary – Chief Football Reporter
  • Theo Doropoulos
  • Ryan Daniels
  • Xander McGuire
  • Kate Massey
Shows
Past

[AFL Women's]

Seven broadcast the AFL Women's Exhibition Matches between 2015 and 2016 before becoming the inaugural FTA broadcaster of the AFLW in 2017.
Current
Past

[EJ Whitten Legends Game]

[International Rules Series]

[Victorian Football League]

Current
Past

WAFL">West Australian Football League">WAFL

Current
Past

[SANFL]

Current
Past

Cricket

Australian Men's Test Cricket">Australian Cricket Team">Australian Men's Test Cricket

Current
International Expert Commentators
Past

Women's International Matches">Australian Women's Cricket Team">Women's International Matches

Current
Past

[Big Bash League]

Current
Past

[Women's Big Bash League]

Current
Past

Other Cricket presenters

Tennis

Final

Wimbledon
Davis Cup
Past

Horse Racing

Present
Past

Motor Racing

Supercars Championship

Current
Past

Bathurst 12 Hour

TCR Australia & GT World Challenge Australia

Rugby League

[2017 Rugby League World Cup]

Golf

Current
Past

Swimming

Stawell Gift

Current
Past

Rugby Union

Rugby World Series

Soccer

2002/2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (inter-confederation play-offs)

Manchester United vs Perth Glory/Leeds United 2019

Sydney FC v Tottenham 2015

A-League All Stars 2013/14, Liverpool v Victory 2013

Matilda's Olympic Qualifiers 2016

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup

Awards

Sports coverage and programs made by Seven Sport have been won and been nominated for several awards at the Logie Awards.