Where to get a guaranteed audience: AFL and NRL 2026 schedules drop

JAMES MANNING

November 14, 2025 9:50

Where to get a guaranteed audience: AFL and NRL 2026 schedules drop

AFL premiers for the past two seasons, Brisbane, promote their 2026 season

In mid-November every year advertisers get handed a detailed schedule of where to find guaranteed TV audiences for the year ahead.

It comes via the AFL and NRL fixtures.

As TV audiences continue to fragment, one of the guarantees for big crowds is live coverage of major Australian sports.

Next week it will be the start of The Ashes. Next year it will be via the AFL and the NRL. Forget about which of those codes is the biggest – they are both must-haves for many major brands.

Viewers will be watching the AFL action via Seven and/or Kayo Sports.

Round 1 of the NRL sees the season again launching in Las Vegas

The NRL has started dropping key dates for 2026 with the full schedule released midday today. NRL fans and broadcasters Nine and Kayo Sports got an early look at key dates like Round 1 in Las Vegas (28 February in the US), plus NRL and NRLW schedules for State of Origin and Magic Rounds.

Both Seven and Nine want season-long commitment from brands looking to access the coverage. But big spenders will get to pick and choose to make sure they are omnipresent in the big matches.

AFL to get its own State of Origin, more finals

The FTA games broadcast by Seven are on Thursday and Friday nights plus Sunday afternoons, in addition to marquee matches.

Kayo Sports gets every game with all nine matches each round featuring its own commentators for the second year.

There are bonuses for both broadcasters next year. The first is the return of AFL State of Origin as the code tries to rebuild a franchise to match the NRL games that drive so much viewing in the middle of each season.

The AFL version will be Western Australia versus Victoria and will be a single pre-season match in mid-February. It won’t go close to rivalling NRL Origin ratings, but the AFL will see it as the start of something they hope will grow over time.

The AFL has just a single Origin match lined up, in February … but they have start somewhere

The biggest news for AFL fans, broadcasters and therefore advertisers is the arrival of a wildcard weekend.

The two games will fill a void at the end of the Home and Away season where there was an awkward pause with no football on one weekend ahead of the AFL Final Series.

The AFL has called the initiative “the biggest finals shake-up in 25 years”. Here’s how it works: The top six teams on the AFL ladder at the end of the Home and Away season will move straight through to finals, while the teams finishing seventh to 10th will play off for the last two spots in September.

Seventh will play 10th, while eighth will play ninth on a weekend that will form an extra week in the finals series.

The two extra finals are a massive bonus for both Seven and Kayo Sports. It means a 10 team final series, giving more fans hope for season success which will mean more engagement deeper into the season.

Season 2025 AFL disappointments

Broadcasters have a significant say in the make up of their respective sports. And despite some reservations AFL broadcasters had about season 2025, there is optimism about the 2026 schedule.

Just last week, Mumbrellas’s Tim Burrowes noted disappointment about 2025 from outgoing Seven chairman Kerry Stokes:

On the way out of the door, there was a mild surprise: Stokes took a whack at Seven’s long-term sports partner, the AFL, which was, he implied, to blame for this season’s soft ratings. He told the AGM: “We expect the poor scheduling from the AFL this year will be rectified in the coming season to help deliver even stronger audiences for our suite of live sport.”

Speaking to Mumbrella this week about the 2026 schedule, Seven’s director of network sport Chris Jones said: “The biggest benefit is that [the wildcard weekend] is going to keep so many more regular season games alive at the back end. It won’t just benefit that weekend, but will really help in the weeks leading up to the finals.”

Jones also explained the challenges with the 2025 season.

“It was really difficult last year for some of those Thursday night matches in the back end of the season because of the cyclone delayed matches [which meant] the fixture was hamstrung in the back end.

“We are extremely confident that Thursday and Friday night footy and the Sunday night matches that went so well for us this year are going to look very exciting next year.”

A Foxtel spokesperson reminded Mumbrella that Kayo Sports would have every single game of every Home and Away round live, in 4K, with no ad breaks during play, adding: “The 2025 AFL season broke records on Kayo Sports with fans given more choice than ever in how they watch their footy, and we can’t wait to do it all again in 2026.”

Both Seven and Kayo Sports claimed record audience peaks for their coverage of AFL in 2025. Just as well as they are paying significantly more: the current AFL deal has cost the broadcasters a combined $4.5 billion for seven years, compared to $2.5 billion paid for the previous five-year deal.