Friday Night Football (AFL)

Friday Night Football

Company type	Television series
Industry	Sports broadcasting
Founded	1985
Headquarters	Australia
Area served	Australia
Parent	Seven Network, Nine Network (former)

Friday Night Football represents an Australian sports television series currently broadcast on the Seven Network.

History

Evening matches of Australian rules football outside weekends originated in the late 1970s and early 1980s through the night series, a knock-out tournament that featured teams from across the country alongside regular league competitions.

The inaugural Victorian Football League Friday night fixtures appeared in 1985, initially scheduled sporadically and exclusively involving North Melbourne. By 1987, Friday Night Football had become a more consistent feature, with multiple clubs hosting games.

Friday night AFL contests predominantly take place in Melbourne at either the Melbourne Cricket Ground or Docklands Stadium, although venues in Sydney, Adelaide, and Perth also host select matches each year. To avoid overlapping with the more dominant National Rugby League in Sydney, Brisbane, and the Gold Coast, Friday night AFL games are less frequent in those cities. As this timeslot is the most commercially valuable broadcast window during weekends, top-performing teams are typically scheduled to ensure high-caliber encounters. In 2014, the Gold Coast Suns advocated for increased Friday night appearances for the 2015 season, citing their enhanced on-field results.

The commentary team on Seven includes James Brayshaw, Brian Taylor, and Hamish McLachlan, complemented by expert analysts such as Wayne Carey, Cameron Ling, Tim Watson, Matthew Richardson, Leigh Matthews, and Luke Darcy.

Broadcast history

The Seven Network was the pioneer Australian broadcaster of Friday Night Football, airing matches for roughly four decades before losing rights after 2001.

Between 2002 and 2006, the broadcasting rights for Friday nights were held by the Nine Network. Since Nine also owned rights to the NRL, in cities like Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth the AFL game was shown live at 8:30pm, followed by Nightline or a news bulletin, then the NRL match. Conversely, in Sydney, Canberra, and Brisbane, this sequence was reversed: NRL aired first at 8:30pm, then Nightline, followed by AFL.

Seven reclaimed broadcasting rights in 2007 and typically aired matches live at 8:30pm in Melbourne up to 2011. Most games were delayed by one hour except for live broadcasts in Perth and occasionally Adelaide; only sell-out matches were shown live in Melbourne. This arrangement prioritized Better Homes and Gardens during the prime 7:30pm slot. Seven was also anticipated to schedule earlier AFL kickoffs in New South Wales and Queensland to expand viewership there; however, Foxtel instead provided live coverage of Friday night matches on its Main Event channel for Fox Sports subscribers without additional fees.

Beginning with the 2012 broadcast agreement, Seven started airing Friday night games live from 7:30pm in Melbourne. The final hour of Better Homes and Gardens was moved to 7Two in Melbourne and Adelaide (with the first half-hour still shown on the main channel), while viewers in Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth received the full 90-minute program on the primary channel alongside Friday Night Football on 7mate.

Early Saturday morning replays of Friday night matches were shown at 6am on 7Two, later shifting to 7mate in 2011 before being discontinued from 2012 onwards.

From 2014 onwards, Friday night broadcasts commenced nationally at 7:00pm with pre-match coverage airing on 7mate.