Source : THE AGE NEWS
Just two months after AFL fans were shocked to find out it would cost a minimum of $25 a month to watch any live football on a Saturday, Foxtel’s Kayo is preparing to hike its subscription costs again.
While it was announced last year, it wasn’t until round one of the season that many Australians switched on free-to-air broadcaster Network Seven on Saturday night to find a movie rerun playing instead of football.
An advertisement for Kayo Sports promoting their exclusive Fox Footy AFL coverage on Saturdays.Credit: Paul Rovere
Foxtel, less than two months into its new ownership by British streamer DAZN, had made it clear before the start of the 2025 AFL season that the only place to watch the footy on a Saturday would be through a subscription to its streaming platform, Kayo, or for those still paying a premium for a set-top box at home.
But for the average Australian, watching the AFL on a Saturday night is standard appointment viewing, and most do not expect to pay for it. While all games are available on Foxtel, there was an expectation among fans at least one game would be available each day across the weekend.
In Foxtel’s final reported figures before being sold by News Corp and Telstra, it reported 1.5 million paying subscribers for Kayo in September last year.
On the eve of the season kicking off in March, Kayo’s “basic” tier was renamed “Kayo Premium”, with its price rising to $40 a month (up from $35). Meanwhile, those still on its standard tier, will have to pay $30 from June 3, up from $25.
This is the first year of the blockbuster $4.5 billion contract signed by the AFL, Foxtel and Seven in 2022. The contract will run until 2031; Foxtel pays about $418 million a year to the AFL as part of the deal.
Given the cost of the AFL rights, and rising costs of all of its other sports contracts, Foxtel has had to find ways to make a profit. And a part of the remedy has been to put AFL games behind a paywall on the biggest day of the week for the league.
Foxtel’s exclusive “Super Saturday” coverage was initially in place nationally across the first eight rounds. Now, viewers in other states can watch the Saturday AFL games on Network Seven, but Victorians have no option other than paying for it.
Games in Western Australia and South Australia on Saturdays are now available for the rest of the season on Seven, while games in New South Wales and Queensland, predominantly NRL states, will be available on free-to-air TV from this week’s round of matches.
In Victoria, where more than half of the AFL teams play, Saturday night footy is locked behind a paywall for the rest of the season.
While Kayo also displays some ads, it relies mostly on subscription revenue to recoup its substantial investments in expensive broadcast rights. A Kayo spokesperson confirmed this was the first price rise to its entry-level tier since it launched in 2018.
“We have worked hard to avoid any changes to our Kayo entry-level tier subscription over the past seven years, but with the growing cost of sports content and the need for continued investment in technology, we have had to make the difficult decision to increase the entry-level price by $5 per month to $30,” the spokesperson said.
Foxtel has a similar arrangement with the NRL, broadcasting “Super Saturday” coverage, with free-to-air broadcaster Nine Network showing games on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.
The NRL is taking its broadcast rights from 2028 onwards to market this year, leaving Foxtel with the likelihood of having to pay more to retain its rights package.
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