Fox Footy’s huge TV ratings win for 2025 revealed

Fox Footy’s decision to go head-to-head with Channel 7 has proven a winner, with huge numbers flocking to the broadcaster in 2025. But, it won’t be drawn on public criticism from Brian Taylor.

Fox Footy’s move to have dedicated commentary teams on Thursday and Friday nights is being hailed a stunning success.

This is the first season footy fans have had a choice of either Channel 7 or Fox Footy for who they want to listen to calling the games.

On Thursday nights Fox Footy went with Matt Hill and Mark Howard alongside former Richmond champion Jack Riewoldt in the experts chair.

The Friday night team brings together two of the most respected in the business, Anthony Hudson and Gerard Whateley, with AFL greats Garry Lyon and Jason Dunstall doing special comments.

Viewers are turning to Kayo with Fox Footy recording a 41 percent jump on Thursday nights and 30 percent on Friday nights. Overall AFL on Kayo is up 25 per cent compared to last year.

Fox Footy’s exclusive calls have been a win with viewers.

Super Saturday has been a major promotion for Kayo this season with no free-to-air matches and the move has paid dividends with a 27 percent increase in viewers.

The changing landscape in the first year of the new TV rights deal hasn’t been without tension after Seven’s Brian Taylor had a crack at Fox Footy’s commentary team not being at the MCG on Sunday for the Melbourne-Sydney clash.

Seven then provocatively took out a full-page advertisement in the Herald Sun championing its cause.

Brian Taylor at the MCG.

Lyon had a gentle swipe back at Taylor, his former radio partner at Triple M, when asked about the situation on SEN earlier this week saying BT should be careful or there would be an audit on his commentary about calling the wrong players’ names.

Fox Sports executive director Steve Crawley said he wasn’t getting involved in a tit-for-tat with rivals.

“We’ve decided that we’re not going to go down that path,” Crawley said.

He is focused on the excitement around his new commentary line-ups, particularly the introduction of Hill who is also Victoria’s No.1 racecaller.

“I have seen a lot of natural callers come along and I’ve worked with the best, I worked with Ray Warren, I worked with Bruce McAvaney at times through my career, and I have worked with great racecallers, this kid might be the best racecaller I have ever heard and has the potential to be one of the great footy callers,” Crawley said.

Matt Hill has made a seamless transition to calling AFL on Fox Footy. Picture: Michael Klein

“He’s got this trick where he might use a great adjective but he’ll only use it once every couple of months, he doesn’t overcook anything he does.

“We put a camera in working with him and Howey, they didn’t even know each other two months ago and you can see the joy that they get from calling with each other and how neither of them are selfish in the box.”

He described the combination of Hudson and Whateley as bringing together “the statesmen of the game” while he regarded Lyon and Dunstall as AFL royalty.

Some other highlights for Kayo this season included the Collingwood-Geelong Rd 8 clash being the most streamed match of the season and second highest of all-time (389,000) while Anzac Day between Collingwood-Essendon was the second most streamed match of the season and third all-time (381,000).

Originally published as Fox Footy’s huge TV ratings win for 2025 revealed