American footy’s US$1 billion global TV play
When champion punter Michael Dickson takes the field next Monday in the Super Bowl LX matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, the 30-year-old Sydney-born sports star has more than just the glory of victory in America’s tribal football war on his shoulders.
Dickson is Australia’s current poster boy in the NFL, outlining an ambitious global strategy to expand the footprint and fandom of the American football code. The league’s aim is to create an international fixture schedule in its television broadcast rights deal that could be worth as much as US$1 billion ($1.4 billion).
Although American football has always had a modest following in Australia, we have become the NFL’s sixth largest market outside the US, behind Mexico, Canada, Germany, the UK and Brazil. In Canada, for example, teams like the Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks have loyal local fan bases in Toronto and Vancouver, while Germany is the NFL’s largest market in Europe in terms of streaming subscriptions and merchandise sales.
Exact figures are more elusive in Australia, but in raw terms 2025’s Super Bowl LIX attracted a national audience of 892,000 viewers on Seven, with a “reach” – that is, the total pool of viewers watching any episode of the television broadcast – of 2.6 million. Estimates say Australia could be home to as many as 5 million potential NFL fans.
“Australians love sports; we’re a sporting nation,” says Kylie Watson-Wheeler, senior vice president and general manager of Disney and president of ESPN Asia Pacific, which has broadcast the Super Bowl in Australia for 26 years. “When given the opportunity to be exposed to a different sport, we understand and are interested.”
A critical piece of the NFL’s 2026 strategic puzzle is the staging of the code’s first regular season game, scheduled to be played in September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Australia, with the Los Angeles Rams designated as the “home” team.
Unlike many international fixtures, this fixture will not be an exhibition match, but an intra-competition points clash.
“I think it’s a great strategy,” Watson-Wheeler says. “Streaming is incredibly important and key to connecting broadly with audiences around the world, but sport in person is a pretty exciting premise. The opportunity to experience it in person creates the potential for a much deeper fandom.”
The NFL operates a “global market program” where, within the rules, 32 competing clubs are granted “licenses” for specific countries and allowed to “build brand awareness and fandom… through fan engagement, events, commercial opportunities and NFL Flag development” in those countries.
The four clubs licensed to “market” themselves in Australia are the Los Angeles Rams, Las Vegas Raiders, Philadelphia Eagles and Seattle Seahawks.
The NFL will not announce its full 2026 season plans until May, but has confirmed that games will be held in Madrid, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Munich, the Los Angeles Rams will have a home game in Melbourne and three games in London.
A report in 2025 said the NFL’s international program could be spun off into its own rights deal worth US$1 billion alone. Code’s current 11-year US deal, which spans Amazon, CBS, ESPN/ABC, FOX and NBC, is valued at approximately US$110 billion. (Those deals expire in 2029.) The NFL also closed a $3 billion deal this week with a 10 percent stake in ESPN.
Watson-Wheeler, who is also chairman of the Western Bulldogs AFL club and sits on the board of Tennis Australia, describes streaming live sports as “a natural evolution of the media landscape”.
“From a broadcaster perspective… sports brings with it a committed, dedicated audience that watches regularly,” he says. “On the other hand, broadcast audiences are growing rapidly and sports want to be where the eyeballs are.
Australia alone has seen Amazon move into cricket, basketball and the NFL, Paramount+ into A-League football and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and Kayo into cricket, motorsport, netball, golf and UFC. Stan owns the English Premier League, UEFA Champions League and FA Cup and, along with Nine, also owns the title, rugby union and four tennis Grand Slams. Seven and Nine carry the AFL and NRL respectively, but Kayo carries both.
The Broadcasting Services Act includes anti-siphoning provisions requiring the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, Melbourne Cup, Australian Open, Australian Grand Prix and certain cricket, rugby league, rugby union and AFL fixtures to be carried on free-to-air TV.
US sports are not protected in this way, and like American basketball, American football – or “gridiron” as it is sometimes called – is increasingly popular, especially among younger audiences interested in social media. ESPN in Australia broadcasts the “big four” US leagues: NFL, NBA (basketball), NHL (hockey) and MLB (baseball), as well as the WNBA, Australian men’s (NBL) and women’s (WNBL) basketball.
It also helps young Australians have Aussie stars in the NFL that they can focus their energy on. Australians currently playing in the NFL include Daniel Faalele (Baltimore Ravens), Mitch Wishnowsky (San Francisco 49ers), Tory Taylor (Chicago Bears), Jeremy Crawshaw (Denver Broncos), Cameron Johnston (Buffalo Bills), Jordan Mailata (Philadelphia Eagles), the first Australian to play on a Super Bowl-winning team, and Dickson (Seattle Seahawks), the NFL’s highest-paid team. bettor.
Watson-Wheeler says these Aussies create “an opportunity to create a real emotional connection with fans.” “It’s quite extraordinary to see someone who talks like you and sounds like you playing this huge game on the world stage. As Australians, we are proud of our fellow countrymen when they succeed.”
Super Bowl LX – Seattle Seahawks v New England Patriots – will be broadcast on ESPN and the Seven Network via Disney+, Foxtel, Kayo and Fetch TV from 10.30am (AEDT) on Monday, February 9. Follow all the action on our live blog.
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Michael Idato is general culture editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect with: X or email.
