COOLANGATTA, QLD/AUS (Thursday December 16, 2021) - The World Surf League (WSL) has today announced that the Seven Network will continue as the official free-to-air partner of the league in Australia through 2022 with WSL programming across Seven and live-streamed on 7plus.
All stops of the elite Championship Tour and Challenger Series along with Australian based Qualifying Series events will be broadcast across their online streaming platform 7plus. The deal will also see Seven live broadcast the Rip Curl WSL Finals on Channel 7 and 7mate as well as 11 CT event hour long recap shows throughout the 2022 season and ‘quick to market' hour long event highlight shows.
"Network Seven continuing their commitment and support of surfing and the World Surf League is fantastic news," said WSL Asia Pacific General Manager, Andrew Stark. "2021 saw more eyes on competitive surfing than ever before with the sports inclusion in the Tokyo Olympics as well as the inaugural Rip Curl WSL Final Series. It was a record breaking year for viewers and Seven was a big part of that here in Australia. With the full schedule of CT events returning along with the addition of an entire Challenger Series season, we're expecting 2022 to continue this trajectory and we are stoked that our fans can watch all the excitement unfold on free-to-air TV through Seven and 7plus."
Seven's coverage of the 2022 WSL season will begin with the opening event of the men's and women's Championship Tour, the Billabong Pro Pipeline which commences on January 29, 2022. This event in particular will be a historic one with the women competing for world title points at Pipeline for the first time in history.
Managing Director Seven Melbourne and Head of Network Sport, Lewis Martin, said: "Surfing is as entrenched in Australian culture as any sport, so we're stoked to continue our partnership with the World Surf League. We can't wait to bring sport fans all the action from the world's best surfing events, as we follow our surfers to some of the most iconic beach destinations in the world, over the next year - all of it live and free on Seven and 7plus, your Home of Sport."
Be sure to tune in to the first event of the WSL CT Season, the Billabong Pro Pipeline which will commence in Hawaii on January 29.