Viewers loved the Suns v Pies. Here’s why that matters for footy on TV in 2026
By Jon Pierik
Updated February 17, 2026
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/AFL/sev ... 5nxmd.html
The AFL’s biggest clubs will lose their stranglehold on prime-time games if they fall out of finals contention because broadcasters say fans now want to watch the best teams in action, irrespective of their following.
Channel Seven says the best example that proves fans now prefer quality (of game) over quantity (of supporters) is that its highest rating game of 2025 – outside of finals and public holidays – featured Gold Coast, the club with the smallest membership base.
Despite Gold Coast’s small following, their round-18 game Collingwood was one of the most watched games on free-to-air TV last year. CREDIT: VIA GETTY IMAGES
These viewing habits will force a shift in how games are scheduled under the league’s floating fixture late in the 2026 season, with Seven and fellow host broadcaster Foxtel hoping to bolster ratings in the Thursday-night timeslot, after mixed fortunes last year.
The ratings were excellent early in the season but finished as a disappointment in what was the first full season of matches in that marquee timeslot. The average national ratings per game on Seven were 576,000, compared to 630,000 a year earlier when just 14 Thursday-night matches were played.
Despite the AFL using its “floating fixture” to give a number of clubs with large supporter bases many of the Thursday games, the ratings fell away late in the season, especially when clubs who were out of finals contention struggled to pique the interest of footy followers.
Seven’s director of sport Chris Jones said he had worked closely with AFL broadcasting and fixture chiefs to solve the problem.
AFL on the box
Channel Seven's highest rating home and away games of 2025
Teams When Audience
Melbourne v Collingwood King's Birthday (Mon), R13 866,885
Collingwood v Essendon Anzac Day (Fri), R7 834,381
Gold Coast v Collingwood R18 (Fri) 757,988
Collingwood v Sydney R5 (Fri) 719,556
Adelaide v Hawthorn R21 (Fri) 700,865
Source: VOZ 5.0, Consolidated 7 data
“This is something that has probably shifted a little bit, and cricket is a great example of this. Once upon a time, it was the Melbourne Stars, Sydney Sixers, big markets, big teams that you would just want to schedule everywhere,” Jones said.
“We saw in the Big Bash, and late in the [AFL] season last year, if Essendon and Carlton weren’t going so well, those numbers were down – people just want to watch great sporting contests at the moment.
“Our highest rating regular-season game last year was Gold Coast [versus] Collingwood. To say that Gold Coast, on a Friday night, would be the highest rating game of the year two or three years ago, you wouldn’t have thought that was possible.
“We are certainly prioritising at the back end of the year those teams that are there in the mix for the [top] 10. We will be trying to drive as many of those teams into Thursday and Friday night as possible.”
Jones said the need to reschedule the cyclone-impacted clash between Essendon and Gold Coast to the end of the season did not help, for the Bombers had long been out of finals contention.
The league’s decision to add a wildcard round, essentially creating a top-10 finals system, will generate greater interest and mean more teams are in contention to play in finals, while Jones said Sunday-night games now “sit alongside Thursday and Friday nights in terms of our marquee slots”.
