The AFL has confirmed the biggest broadcast rights deal in Australian sports history, locking the Seven Network and pay TV provider Foxtel into a seven-year agreement worth $4.5 billion.

The league had been weighing up lucrative offers from the Ten Network and its streaming partner Paramount Plus, and the Nine Network and Stan, but will stick with the incumbents.

Telstra will also continue as the AFL’s digital partner.

The AFL held a media conference on Tuesday to confirm details of the new deal, which will run from 2025 until the end of the 2031 season.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the AFL secured two-season extensions with Seven and Foxtel worth $946 million.

In 2015, Seven, Foxtel and Telstra teamed up for a then-record seven-year deal worth $2.5 billion.

Seven and Foxtel have broadcast the AFL since 2012, after the Ten Network bowed out following a decade as a co-partner.

AFL chairman Richard Goyder appeared on a video link from Perth for the announcement, alongside Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes.

“Today makes certain of affordability and accessibility at all levels,” Goyder said.

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan hosted the media conference in Melbourne alongside Seven West and Foxtel executives.

McLachlan called the agreement a “universal partnership” that secured the game’s future and would help the league and AFL clubs rebound from the financial ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic

The new agreement could have a flow-on effect for other sports, such as cricket and tennis.

Seven West Media has declared it will take Cricket Australia to court over an alleged breach of the broadcast deal the parties signed in 2018.

When McLachlan announced his pending resignation from the AFL in April, he said securing the new rights deal was a key priority before he left.

– AAP