Sommet Sports, a new digital free-to-air channel that will launch in New Zealand next month, has acquired rights for the Australian Football League, the top Aussie rules championship in Australia, alongside pay-television broadcaster Sky New Zealand.
The deals will run for one season, until the end of the 2013 campaign.
Sommet Sports will show six AFL matches live per week on Freeview channel 14 in New Zealand, with three other games shown on a delayed basis, starting from round four of the season on April 18.
Sky NZ will show one game per week on a delayed basis throughout the season, which will start on March 22.
Both broadcasters will show live coverage of St Kilda v Sydney Swans in Wellington on April 25 – the first AFL top-tier Premiership fixture to be staged in New Zealand – and the Collingwood v Essendon game on the same day, plus the Premiership grand final live.
Sommet Sports will show all finals series games live and 23 episodes of the AFL’s weekly magazine programme, while Sky NZ will broadcast the finals series matches on a delay and will show all 28 episodes of the magazine programme from the start of the season.