The Fox Footy Channel was a channel exclusively dedicated to

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

. It was owned by

Foxtel Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was establi ...

and operated out of their Melbourne based studios. From 2002 - 2006 it was available on

Austar Austar was an Australian telecommunications company. Its main business activity was subscription television but it has also been involved with internet access and mobile phones. It was founded in 1995 under the name Community Entertainment Tele ...

Optus Television Optus Television is the cable television division of Australian telecommunications company Optus. History Its immediate predecessor was Optus Vision, a joint venture between Optus and Continental Cablevision, with small shareholdings by me ...

TransTV Trans TV is an Indonesian free-to-air television network based in South Jakarta that was launched on December 15, 2001 and owned by Chairul Tanjung. Programming consists of newscasts, movies, drama series, variety shows, quiz shows, and childre ...

and

Neighbourhood Cable A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...

until transmission ceased on 1 October 2006. The channel was revived as

Fox Footy Fox Footy (stylised as FOX FOOTY) is an Australian rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited, operated out of their Me ...

for the 2012 AFL season after a new broadcast agreement was reached between

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

and the

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

History

The channel was created in 2002 after

News Limited News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,00 ...

won the television broadcast rights to the

for the 2002 to 2006 seasons. It granted

free to air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscriptio ...

rights to the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

and

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of fiv ...

and granted the subscription rights to

. Fox Footy was originally offered by Foxtel for an additional subscription during the first two seasons of the rights agreement; however, it was moved to the Basic package in February 2004, making it available to all Foxtel subscribers without additional charge for the balance of its life. Due to broadcasting rights, each state had a separate version of the channel to allow free-to-air right holders exclusive live coverage. For example, if Channel Nine or Channel Ten broadcast a match between the

Adelaide Crows The Adelaide Crows (officially the Adelaide Football Club) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1990. The Crows has fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since ...

and

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a rese ...

live in Adelaide, Fox Footy would have been prevented from showing the match live, whereas if Nine or Ten didn't broadcast it in Melbourne, Fox Footy would be allowed to show it live there. Fox Footy typically repeated all matches after they were played, although often with the commentary of the free-to-air network that presented it live originally. Fox Footy only broadcast the AFL and not any state football leagues such as

SANFL The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

, WAFL or VFL.

End of the channel

The future of the channel was placed in doubt after the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

and

were awarded the AFL rights from 2007 to 2011. On 23 August 2006, Foxtel announced the Fox Footy Channel would cease broadcasting at the conclusion of the current AFL season and be replaced with Fox Sports 3. Foxtel CEO Kim Williams stated "It's not financially viable to continue operating a 24-hour-a-day (Australian rules) football channel when we can only get three live games a week and not on the terms we have sought." The channel ended after a replay of the

2006 AFL Grand Final The 2006 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 2006. It was the 110th annual grand final of the Austra ...

at 4.00am. Seven and Ten later came to terms with Foxtel and four games per round will be shown on pay-TV through the

channels.

Revival

It was announced on 28 April 2011 that the channel will be revived for the 2012 AFL season. The channel returned exclusively on Foxtel and its broadcasting partners, under the proposed new name of ''Fox Sports AFL'', which was later changed back to its original name ''Fox Footy''. The channel relaunched on Friday 17 February 2012 with the first

NAB Cup In the Australian Football League (AFL), previously the Victorian Football League (VFL), the pre-season competition, known during its history by a variety of sponsored names and most recently as the NAB Cup, was an annual Australian rules foot ...

round-robin match between

Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, Californi ...

and

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at ...

broadcast that night. ''Fox Footy'' broadcasts all NAB Challenge games exclusively, all home and away matches and all finals matches (except for the Grand Final which screens exclusively on Seven). All matches are broadcast live to air in both

Standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...

and High Definition with no commercial breaks during play. When two live matches are being played simultaneously,

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports 2 ...

broadcasts one of the matches. Football personalities and commentators who signed or re-signed to be a part of the relaunched channel included

Eddie McGuire Edward Joseph McGuire AM (born 29 October 1964) is an Australian television presenter, journalist and Australian Football League commentator. He is also an occasional '' Herald Sun'' newspaper columnist. He hosts Channel Nine’s Millionai ...

(who commentates one non- Collingwood match a week and hosts his own talk show),

Gerard Healy Gerard Healy (born 1 March 1961) is a former Australian rules footballer and commentator. Healy attended St Bede's College in Mentone, where he was the senior football captain. Gerard is a trained physiotherapist. VFL career Melbourne Demo ...

, Paul Roos,

Jason Dunstall Jason Hadfield Dunstall (born 14 August 1964) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Dunstall is arguably the greatest Australian rules footballer to come from ...

, Dwayne Russell, Brad Johnson,

Alastair Lynch Alastair Graeme Lynch (born 19 June 1968) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is best known as a three-time premiership full-forward for the Brisbane Lions. The Tasmanian ...

, Tony Shaw,

Liam Pickering Liam Michael Pickering (born 9 September 1968) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the North Melbourne Football Club and the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). His father, Michael ...

, David King,

Danny Frawley Daniel Patrick Frawley (8 September 1963 – 9 September 2019) was an Australian rules football player, coach, administrator, commentator and media personality. He played 240 games for the St Kilda Football Club in the Victorian Football League ...

Mark Ricciuto Mark Anthony Ricciuto ( ; born 8 June 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). From Ramco, South Australia, Ricciuto started as a junior with the local Waike ...

Glen Jakovich Glen Darren Jakovich (born 24 March 1973) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). Jakovich was recruited from South Fremantle in the West Australian Football League ...

, Anthony Hudson and

Dermott Brereton Dermott Hugh Brereton (born 19 August 1964) is an Australian former professional Australian rules football player in the Australian Football League (AFL) who is regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation. Of Irish descent (his p ...

Former 2002-2006 commentary team

Clinton Grybas Clinton Andrew Grybas (9 February 1975 – 5 January 2008) was a leading Australian rules football and sports radio and television commentator. Career His media career began at the South East Melbourne Magic basketball team as club journalist ...

* Matthew Campbell * Jason Bennett * Kevin Bartlett *

Wayne Schwass Wayne Schwass (born 27 November 1968) is a former professional Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League. He is notable as being the first New Zealand–born AFL player known to be of Māori heritage. He holds the record fo ...

Mark Aiston Mark Aiston is an Australian sports journalist and sports presenter. Aiston is currently a breakfast radio presenter on FIVEaa. He was previously a sport presenter on ''Ten Eyewitness News'' and breakfast radio presenter on Mix 102.3. Career Ai ...

''(Saturday Adelaide Games Only)'' *

Kym Dillon Kym Dillon (born 19 June 1959) is the former sports presenter for Nine News Adelaide. He is also part of the successful sports coverage and football commentary team at FIVEaa. Prior to his media career he played football for SANFL clubs North Ad ...

''(Sunday Adelaide Games Only)'' *

Chris McDermott Christopher Stephen McDermott (born 4 November 1963) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the Glenelg Football Club and North Adelaide Foot ...

''(special comments)'' ''(Adelaide Games Only)'' *

Tim Gossage Tim Gossage (born 27 February 1965, in Perth) is an Australian sports commentator and Australian rules football coach based in Perth, Western Australia. Media Gossage joined Network 10 in Perth in 1990. During his time at Ten, he'd featured on ...

''(Saturday Perth Games Only)'' * Peter Wilson ''(special comments)'' ''(Perth Games Only)'' *

''(special comments)'' * Tony Shaw ''(special comments)'' *

Wayne Carey Wayne Francis Carey (born 27 May 1971) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the North Melbourne Football Club and Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A dual-premiership captain at North Melbourne ...

''(special comments)'' * Scott Cummings ''(boundary rider)'' *

Tiffany Cherry Tiffany Cherry (born 4 August 1971) is an Australian sports broadcaster, best known as the Australian Football League (AFL's) first female boundary rider on the original Fox Footy. She was the co-host of the Foxtel 2010 Winter Olympic Games in V ...

''(boundary rider)'' *

Glenn Manton Glenn Manton (born 1 June 1973) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Carlton and Essendon. Since leaving the AFL, he has been an author, media personality, youth advocate and professional speaker. AFL career Manton played fo ...

''(boundary rider)'' * Richard Osborne ''(boundary rider)'' The Sunday afternoon game covered by Fox Footy usually had the combination of Grybas, Carey and Healy; Saturday afternoon saw Bennett, Schwass, Lynch or Shaw; while Bartlett and Campbell were among the Saturday night match commentators.

Programming

Fox Footy produced and aired shows, including: * White Line Fever * Saturday Central * On the Couch * Living With Footballers * AFL Lovematch * The Gospel * Grumpy Old Men * Classic Quarters * The Fox Footy Archive * Fox League Teams * Fox Footy Feature * From The FOX Footy Vault * Footy Flashbacks * Auskick'n Around - Featuring "The Lynch Mob"

References

{{Subscription television channels in Australia Television channels and stations established in 2002 Defunct Australian television channels Television channels and stations disestablished in 2006 English-language television stations in Australia News Corporation subsidiaries History of Australian rules football 2002 establishments in Australia Sports television networks in Australia