A sizeable pick up for Seven with their announcement they’ve secured a five year deal to broadcast a bunch of NFL games (three a week, one live) into Australia, along with a bunch of other content. Interestingly the playoffs and Superbowl will also be broadcast live into Australia (the latter always was with previous broadcaster Ten), with likely the big game taking over the primary network that morning. Expect a lot more mugging at the camera from Kochie about his “knowledge” of “American Football”, especially that day.

Also great dig in the opening line.

From the press release:

The Seven Network – Australia’s most-watched broadcast television platform – today confirmed the signing of a five year agreement for coverage of the National Football League, the biggest sport in the United States.

Seven’s agreement with the National Football League delivers free broadcast television rights on Seven and 7mate. Under the new agreement, Seven will broadcast three consecutive games on Sunday, ending with the blockbuster NFL Sunday Night Football, all coming in live into Australia on 7mate on Monday. Seven will also broadcast live the NFL Playoffs and Super Bowl. The agreement also includes marquee NFL games such as the traditional Kick-off game and Thanksgiving NFL matches.

The partnership between Seven and the NFL expands beyond television to Seven’s digital platforms, including online and Hybrid Broadcast Broadband Television for select NFL programming and video clips on Seven’s primary digital properties. In addition, Seven will be the digital advertising representatives for NFL.com and m.nfl.com in Australia, which traffic volumes rank in the top 5 for the NFL globally. Lastly, Seven will promote the highly successful NFL Game Pass digital subscription product, which contains a vast offering of live and archived games and other NFL content on PCs, tablets and smartphones.

Adding further depth to Seven’s commitment, 7mate will also telecast other NFL programmes, including: Hard Knocks, Sound FX, A Football Life, Road to the Super Bowl, Road to the Playoffs and America’s Game: The Super Bowl Champions.

Confirming the agreement, Seven’s Head of Sport, Saul Shtein, said: “This is a great signing. We are delighted to be partners with the NFL in Australia. The signing of the NFL to Seven reaffirms a key strategy in our future: a focus on live coverage of major sports events across our broadcast television platform and leveraging and expanding that presence into new forms of content delivery. We are looking forward to working with the NFL and its other media partners to deliver all-encompassing coverage across a number of our broadcast platforms.”

Kurt Burnette, Chief Revenue Officer for Seven said: “The NFL is an extraordinary global sports franchise with a proven dedicated and loyal audience. Now on Australia’s most-watched network, NFL will bring to Seven more of the highly sought after and often elusive male audiences to television. It is the perfect fit for 7mate’s programming strategy and will offer a number of new opportunities across our multiple channel platform for our audiences and our advertising partners.”

“We are proud to partner with Seven in Australia, giving our fans broader access to our content on free television and across their digital platforms,” said Julie Moeller, NFL Vice President of International Media and Business Development. “This partnership extends across many different areas of our business and showcases our award winning programming on a year-round basis.”

Leadership in Sports

Today’s agreement further confirms Seven’s leadership in sports television with the network dramatically expanding its coverage of major sports across its three digital broadcast television channels and accelerating coverage across online, IPTV, HbbTV, mobile and other emerging forms of content delivery.

The National Football League, including Super Bowl, joins The Masters and Wimbledon as a major international sports franchise for Seven. Seven also has all-encompassing agreements for coverage of the Australian Football League Premiership Season, Finals Series and Grand Final, V8 Supercars including the Bathurst 1000, all major horse racing events including the Sydney Easter Carnival, the Melbourne Spring Carnival and the Melbourne Cup Carnival, the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race, all major Australian golf tournaments, including The Masters, The Open and the Perth International, all major iron man and triathlon events, and all major tennis tournaments in Australia including The Australian Open and The Davis Cup.

About the National Football League

The National Football League is America’s most popular sports league, comprised of 32 franchises that compete each year to win the Super Bowl, the world’s biggest annual sporting event. Founded in 1920, the NFL developed the model for the successful modern sports league, including extensive revenue sharing, competitive excellence, strong franchises across the board, and national distribution.