ALL OF this year's NAB Challenge games will now be shown live, with the AFL moving to ensure the six games not broadcast on Fox Footy will be available via live streaming on the competing clubs' websites and club apps.
The AFL announced on Friday that the six games not broadcast on Fox Footy could now be live-streamed after extensive work to repurpose AFL Media resources at the relevant venues.
The games that will be live streamed are:
* Brisbane Lions v St Kilda in Moreton Bay on Saturday, February 28, 3.10pm EST
* Adelaide v North Melbourne in Port Lincoln, Sunday, March 1, 4.10pm CDT
* GWS Giants v Gold Coast at Spotless Stadium, Saturday, March 7, 4.10pm EDT
* Port Adelaide v West Coast at Norwood Oval, Sunday, March 8, 4.10pm CDT
* Western Bulldogs v Melbourne at Eureka Stadium, Saturday, March 14, 4.10pm EDT
* Sydney Swans v Fremantle at Drummoyne Oval, Sunday, March 15, 4.10pm EDT.
For these six matches, AFL Media vision will be used in conjunction with Crocmedia radio commentary on live full-match streams.
Standard match centre statistics, live radio commentary streams, post-match media conferences and in-match highlights will continue to be available for all 27 NAB Challenge matches via afl.com.au and the Official AFL App.
“We’ve listened to the concerns of those supporters who don’t want to miss a minute of their club competing in this year’s NAB Challenge, which is why we’re pleased to have overcome a number of significant hurdles to ensure every fan has the opportunity to watch their team compete in every NAB Challenge match,” AFL broadcasting manager Simon Lethlean said.
“This year we have worked with our broadcast partner Fox Footy to expand NAB Challenge live coverage from 18 to 21 games, and we have also increased the number of NAB Challenge matches played in regional and suburban communities around Australia.
“As a result we have encountered some significant logistical, technical and signal delivery issues at some venues but through a great deal of work with AFL Media we’ve been able to repurpose resources originally slated to produce match highlights to provide live streaming from those venues."