World Footy News

Footy is back. Well in the pre-season NAB Challenge format at least. The NAB Challenge will be officially launched today and will see the first match played on Thursday night (Melbourne time) at Aurora Stadium in Launceston where powerhouse Collingwood will take on reigning AFL Premiers Hawthorn.

We bring you the international broadcast schedule (below). Notably missing is NZ coverage. Free to air digital channel Sommet Sports http://sommetsports.co.nz/ that provided possibly the best free to air coverage of AFL football in the world in 2014 has collapsed financially. It seems that funds promised to the network did not come through and they have ceased broadcasting late in 2014. At the moment they are following some expressions of interest to revive their service, but at this stage that would likely be a streaming service if they are to return at all (and no guarantee they will have AFL rights).  It looks at this stage that there will be one match per week broadcast on Sky as in previous seasons for NZ unless further deals can be done.