How to watch AFL online in 2022

Kicking back with a brew and watching some AFL on your TV should be a no-fuss affair. Unfortunately, with all of the matches being sometimes shown on either free-to-air or pay television, or occasionally both, getting your fix is about as pain-free as playing AFL against somebody who thinks the studs-up rule is more of a loose guideline.

While the 2021 season has drawn to a close at the time of updating this page, the good news is there’s at least another year of being able to stream AFL in the same familiar places. That’s because the broadcast rights between the AFL and the usual broadcast suspects is a five-year agreement from 2017 to 2022.

Regardless of where you are in Australia, you can either tune in on free-to-air at least three times a week during the Premiership season on Channel 7 or streamed on 7plus. Alternatively, toss down some dosh to watch all nine matches of the Premiership season each week on Fox Sports via Foxtel, Foxtel Now or Kayo Sports.

During the Premiership season, the Seven Network can stream a minimum of three free-to-air games on its channels. Practically speaking, this might reach up to as many as seven matches (no pun intended), but you’ll need to jump around between Channel 7 and 7mate. Additionally, certain matches may be delayed, so you’ll need patience if you don’t want to pay to watch all Premiership season matches live. You can also watch all three weeks of the Final Series Matches on Channel 7.

The alternative is to watch these available matches via 7plus, which is Seven Network’s free ad-supported streaming service. Once you’ve signed up for a Seven account, you can stream AFL matches live (excluding replays) or on-demand via 7plus on the following devices:

• Web browser
• iOS (iPhone and iPad)
• Android (phone and tablet)
• Telstra TV
• Fetch TV
• Apple TV
• Android TV
• Samsung TV
• Sony Linux TV
• PlayStation 4
• Chromecast
• Freeview Plus-certified devices
• LG TV (2016 and later)

For those punters who have access to Fox Sports via Foxtel, Foxtel Now or Kayo, there’s a whole lot more AFL on offer. All nine matches each week of the Premiership season are watchable live, plus it’s the same story for all Finals Series Matches (weeks one to three).

If you’re signed up to Kayo, you can stream AFL matches on the following devices:

• iOS 11+ (iPhones and iPads)
• Android 6+ (mobiles and tablets)
• Apple TV 11+ (4th gen or higher)
• Android TV 7.0+
• Selected Hisense TV models (2019–2021)
• Samsung TVs (2017 and later)
• Telstra TV Box (TTV1, TTV2, TTV3)
• Chromecast (best results from Chromecast Ultra and later)
• PC via Chrome, Firefox, Edge browsers (Windows 10)
• Mac via Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge browsers (MacOS 10.12+)
• PlayStation 4
• PlayStation 5

The great news for fans is the AFL Grand Final is only watchable on free-to-air, which means either firing up Channel 7 on the tele or streaming via 7plus.

These days, the AFL Live App is something of a misnomer because Telstra retired the Live Pass portion of the app in February 2021, which means no more video streaming of live matches. You can still access live radio matches, though. Plus, the app includes on-demand full match replays for matches from 2012 onwards, which can be streamed data-free.

The AFL Live App is downloadable from the App Store or Google Play Store.

If you’re overseas and keen to watch AFL online, you’re going to need a virtual private network (VPN) service. Of the best VPN services we’ve tested, we’d recommend going with either NordVPN, ExpressVPN or Hotspot Shield. The table below highlights these VPNs plus some other options that are worth a look.