Seven Sport is the brand and production department under which all sporting events on the 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 (headlined by the Australian Open) 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 (which commenced a year early in 2019) and 2022 respectively (having broadcast London 2012 in the past and will re-commence with Paris 2024). It caused the biggest ever 'shake-up' of Australian television sports broadcasting with widespread media coverage and public discussion at the time.
History
The Seven Network is a major player in Australian sports broadcasting.
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 (Broadcom also sold the rights to TVW-7 in Perth) 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.[1]
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.[2][3][4] Under the deal, Seven and Ten alternated the Brownlow Medal ceremonies and the AFL Grand Final;[5] 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 (2007, 2009 and 2011 were shown on Seven) and the AFL Grand Final (2008 and both in 2010).[6]
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.[7] 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.[8] 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 (night matches on 7mate, day matches on Seven) and South Australia (all on Seven) 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.[9][10] Controversially, however, up to three matches involving each of all four of the Western Australia and South Australia clubs (the West Coast Eagles, Fremantle, Adelaide and Port Adelaide) are televised on a significant delay, with the telecast starting after the final siren has gone in real time.[11][12][13]
Under a revised deal (post COVID-19) 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.[14]
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. Seven will continue to broadcast Friday Night and Sunday Afternoon football. These arrangements differ outside of Victoria, where every local team's match will be broadcast on free-to-air, though some matches involving the Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales clubs will be on delay, similar to the previous deal.[15]
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.[16]
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 (NBC Universal received the Golden Rings), and the Bronze Rings for the Best Sports Coverage (behind SRG Switzerland and YLE Finland).[17]
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.[18]
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.[19] 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.[20]
The Seven commentary team included Evan Green, Will Hagon and Geoff Stone (late 60s to the mid 70s). It included Mike Raymond from 1977 to 1995 and Garry Wilkinson from 1978 to 1996 (V8 1000). Neil Crompton reporting from the pits from around 1985, Mark Oastler (1989–1996), Doug Mulray (1988–1994), Allan Moffat (1985–1996, V8 1000) and as a pit reporter Andy Raymond (early 90s). At the Bathurst 1000, Sandy Roberts or Bruce McAvaney would be the host during the early to mid 1990s.
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 (2021-2025). 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.[24]
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.[25]
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 (violating a contractual obligation for the quality of events carried by Seven to meet that of the previous season).[26][27][28] 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 (BCCI) 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 (which will be the final event of the series) 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."[29][30]
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.[31]
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 and Horse Racing.
Events
Seven Sport holds broadcast rights to the following events:
Current
Past
Programs
Seven Sport has presented the following recurring programmes:
Current
Past
Staff and commentators
The following network personalities are seen across multiple Seven Sport events:
Bruce McAvaney (chief commentator, all sports; member since 1989)
Johanna Griggs (host, Olympics, Commonwealth Games and Australian Open; member since 1994)
Hamish McLachlan (host, Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Australian Open; presenter AFL, Melbourne Cup, cricket; member since 2008)
Jason Richardson (host, cricket and Australian Open; presenter Olympics, Commonwealth Games and Melbourne Cup; member since 2014)
Mel McLaughlin (host, Olympics, cricket and Australian Open; presenter Commonwealth Games, Melbourne Cup; member since 2016)
Abbey Gelmi (host, Olympics, Cricket, AFL, Horse Racing, Motor Racing; member since 2018)
James Brayshaw (commentator, AFL, Cricket; member since 2018)
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.
^"Deal done on AFL broadcast rights". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 February 2007. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
^Images, Quinn Rooney: Getty (28 April 2011). "AFL signs $1.25b broadcast deal". ABC News. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
^Spits, Will Brodie and Scott (28 April 2011). "More live footy under billion dollar AFL rights deal". The Age. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
^Phelan, Jason (27 October 2016). "Fewer games on free-to-air TV in 2017". AAP. AFL.com.au. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
^Thompson, Matt (6 December 2016). "Foxtel decides against on-selling any 2017 games". AFL.com.au. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
^Browne, Ashley; Phelan, Jennifer (18 August 2015). "Fans' five-minute guide to broadcast deal". AFL.com.au. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
^Sutton, Malcolm (2 March 2017). "Live free-to-air coverage AFL of Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide no longer guaranteed". ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved 13 April 2017.
^"Notice for fans: Delayed telecast on Channel 7". West Coast Eagles official website. 6 April 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
^Mark, national sport reporter David (12 June 2020). "AFL TV deal provides some certainty in troubled times". ABC News. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
^"Statement from AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan on historic new broadcast rights agreement". AFL.com.au. 6 September 2022.
^"Olympic News - Official Source of Olympic News". Olympic.org. Archived from the original on 16 December 2004. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
^"Olympic News - Official Source of Olympic News". Olympic.org. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
^"Seven & SBS to Broadcast Beijing Olympics". SportBusiness. 4 April 2007. Retrieved 28 June 2007.
^Lulham, Amanda (12 August 2008). "Channel 7 stumbles on Beijing Olympic Games coverage". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 August 2007.
^Knox, David (18 December 2008). "Seven awarded for Olympic coverage". TV Tonight. Retrieved 18 December 2008.
^"Seven Network nets Olympic Games hat-trick with broadcast rights to 2020". 4 August 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
^"7UPFRONT | SEVEN secures Australian broadcast rights for 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing". 21 October 2020.
^"Seven secures Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016.
^"Supercars to return to the Seven Network in new broadcast deal". 23 September 2020.
^Bailey, Scott (13 April 2018). "Nine and Ten lose cricket rights to Seven and Foxtel". The Roar. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
^"Seven moves to end AUS$450m Cricket Australia broadcast deal, say reports". SportsPro Media. 11 September 2020. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
^"Broadcaster's dramatic escalation of Cricket Australia row". Nine Wide World of Sports. 11 September 2020. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
^Barrett, Chris (13 September 2020). "Seven to continue coverage during feud with Cricket Australia". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
^Pierik, Jon (28 November 2020). "'Head in the sand': Seven fires new broadside at Cricket Australia". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
^Pierik, Jon; Barrett, Chris (30 November 2020). "Seven seeks emails between Australia and India as TV battle goes to court". The Age. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
^"Channel Seven has won the television rights to the Rugby League World Cup in 2017". 8 April 2016. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
^ a b"Bathurst 12 hour". Archived from the original on 10 February 2015. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
^"Seven to broadcast TCR Australia and S5000". Speedcafe. 27 November 2019. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
^"WSL and Seven Network Set to Deliver Surfing to More Australians Than Ever in 2020". worldsurfleague. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
^ a bGaelic football coming to 7mate
^ a b"Economic Impact of the Rugby World Cup 2003 on the Australian Economy – Post Analysis" (PDF). aussport.gov.au. Retrieved 16 December 2010.
^"Seven Network response to ASTRA submission" (PDF). aph.gov.au. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
^Knox, David (4 February 2015). "Airdate: Federation Cup". TV Tonight. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
^"Seven secures Wimbledon" (PDF). sevencorporate.com.au. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
^Knox, David (26 July 2016). "Rio Olympics 2016: guide". TV Tonight. Retrieved 3 August 2016.