Regional fans shut off from Supercars
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 1 July 2025
Today, some regional race fans are waking up to the discovery that they have no way of watching Supercars on free-to-air TV.
Due to Seven West Media and Win Network being unable to renew their program supply agreement, the signal to all three Channel Seven stations is unavailable in the Limestone Coast, Riverland and Griffith regions of Australia.
This means around 132,350 people do not have any free-to-air access to Supercars as the Bathurst 1000 and the anticipated maiden Finals Series approach.
Instead of Sunrise, viewers in those regional areas this morning were greeted with a bland red screen displaying the simple message of “Channel 7 programming no longer available.”
Whilst Supercars can still be seen on streaming service 7plus, Supercars has a strong regional following with many long-term fans relying on the traditional method of free-to-air channels.
Although Fox Sports/Kayo is the main partner in the TV deal broadcasting every round, Seven still simulcasts live coverage of six rounds, plus late-night highlight packages of the rest.
The following round in Townsville is the third of the free-to-air rounds and if a resolution cannot be reached before July 11-13, Supercars will miss a massive chunk of its regional audience.
Mount Gambier’s Kai Allen celebrates his first Supercars podium at Darwin. Image: Mark Horsburgh
The timing could not be worse as one of the impacted area is Mount Gambier – the birthplace of rising rookie Kai Allen.
Thousands in the region would have tuned in to see Allen score his first two Supercars podiums at the recent Darwin Triple Crown, which could be the last round they see for the foreseeable future.
Many would have loved to have seen how the Grove Racing driver, plus another Blue Lake boy in Erebus Motorsport rookie Jobe Stewart would tackle the Great Race in October.
Although now based in Melbourne with Grove Racing, Allen still visits Mount Gambier often and received an outpouring of well wishes following his Hidden Valley breakthrough.
“It is a bit of a shame, and hopefully they can resolve it, but it is out of our control,” Allen told Auto Action.
“There is definitely a massive following in Mount Gambier. I got so many messages and support from down there from fans, family, sponsors and friends.
“It would be sad to see it go.”
It is a massive loss for sports fans in general, as Seven also has deals to screen each AFL season and all home Australian Test matches and select BBL games each summer.
To avoid such dilemmas, back in the early eighties and even as recently as 2003, the ABC carried on broadcasting cricket in select areas where Channel Nine was not available, despite Kerry Packer winning the rights, to ensure all Australians could watch it.
Hopefully, something similar can happen in 2025, as thousands could be forced to miss the annual ritual of watching the Great Race at Bathurst, among other blue-ribbon Supercars rounds after Darwin.
Even though this is the last season under the current TV rights cycle, incumbents Seven and Fox Sports are expected to renew.
Townsville, Bathurst, Gold Coast and Adelaide are the remaining free-to-air rounds in 2025.
Mount Gambier-based newspaper The SE Voice has reported that independent MLC Sarah Game has penned a letter to the AFL CEO Andrew Dillon, while Member for Barker Tony Pasin has started a petition that has attracted more than 1700 signatures.
“From the 1st of July, Seven Network programming will no longer be available in South Australia’s Riverland and Mount Gambier regions, and in the Griffith area of New South Wales, following Seven’s decision not to renew its program supply agreement with the local licence holder, the WIN Network,” a WIN statement said.
“WIN has been the broadcast partner for Seven content in these regions under a long-standing commercial agreement.
“With the conclusion of this agreement, WIN will no longer carry Seven’s programming schedule in these markets.”
Main image: The SE Voice newspaper
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