Seven was the last cab off the rank for this year’s Upfront season after a busy few months.
The network impressed its stakeholders, advertisers, agencies and brands with the launch date of Phoenix – Seven’s new total TV trading system, impressive AFL and cricket schedule and new and returning content in 2025.
Jeff Howard, Katie Finney, Angus Ross, and Gereurd Roberts
Seven also unveiled new shows such as Stranded On Honeymoon Island, Once In A Lifetime, Jim Jefferies And Friends, and returning content, such as hit tentpole shows – Farmer Wants A Wife, Australian Idol, My Kitchen Rules, The Voice, Dancing With The Stars and The 1% Club.
With the dust settled on the festivities of the presentation, media buyers shared their thoughts and insights on Seven’s year ahead and what it will mean for them.
Lorraine Woods
Lorraine Woods, Atomic 212°’s chief investment and trading director), highlighted the Phoenix upgrade felt like a “major drawcard” for the network.
“It is a major step forward with a more streamlined, efficient, and data-driven approach to total TV buying.”
Woods noted the power of sports content to drive audience growth across the board with increased engagement in most major codes.
She called Seven’s decision to stream these events live and free a “smart strategy” that benefits keen sports fans and the broader Australian population “while positioning them strongly against SVOD providers who are making an active play in this space.”
Woods also added that learnings from the SVOD curation strategy will help continue the network’s digital audience growth momentum.
Ben Cole
Ben Cole, group investment director of Mindshare Sydney, said Seven’s upfront showcased confidence in its 2025 strategy.
He highlighted the strong line-up, commitment to Australian production, and investments in data and technology, which he said signals “a clear focus on driving growth against high-value audiences” for the network and its advertising partners.
Cole called the return of favourites such as Australian Idol, The 1%, Club and The Voice to the programming slate “ensure a broad audience appeal”. Meanwhile, new programs such as On Honeymoon Island and Once In A Lifetime “promise fresh and engaging content”.
On sport, Cole said: “The inclusion of sport programming across all days of the week shows Seven’s commitment to reaching this audience while their prediction of non-match sports programming, adding 30% more audience shows confidence with this move.
“Cricket coverage remains strong, featuring key events like the Australia vs. India Test matches, Women’s Ashes, and Big Bash League.”
Cole noted that Phoenix is “poised to transform media buying”. He said: “The upgrade will be welcomed by agencies as the usual time-consuming task of buying and optimising TV, will be more efficient to enable agencies to trade on a holistic TV audience
“Being able to trade through Phoenix in regional markets will be a strong selling point for agencies, who will no doubt be eager to take this up at launch.”
Suzanne Mellon
Suzanne Mellon, head of investment IAG, Initiative, said Seven’s personalised agency group approached to this year’s upfront to foster closer connections with partners and to deliver a solid performance that refocused on the strength of content.
She noted that the event “lacked the dramatic impact of last year’s ‘That’s Massive’ slogan” but “showcased a strategic return to fundamentals instead of merely promoting a multitude of new and flashy offerings.”
Mellon said that while the announcements in data, technology, and AI were compelling, elements such as Phoenix and the Databricks partnership for audience prediction were “reiterations from last year.”
What did stand out to Mellon as a “significant advancement” was the network’s evolution of the 7REDiQ platform. She said: “By shifting from retrospective insights to predictive foresight, the network has made a critical leap in AI-driven audience intelligence.”
Mellon said the foresight is “valuable in the current economic climate” as advertisers face pressures to show ROI before committing ad spend.” She added that REDiQ4U’s predictive insights and shareable platform access could reinvigorate upper-funnel marketing strategies.
On the arrival of Phoenix, Mellon noted the network reiterated last year’s promise of “the death of make-goods”, increased efficiency, eased integration with VOZ and shift from channel to audience-based trading.
She said guardrails for concerns such as budget and audience flexibility across channels, the implications of Direct IO only and frequency capping should be established. But noted that the benefits of Phoenix outweigh these uncertainties.
“This is an evolution that the industry has been anticipating for some time, but until we delve into the practical implementation of the system it is difficult to predict the speed of market adaptation.”
Kane Cornes – 7AFL Expert Commentator and Abbey Holmes – 7AFL Host and Field Commentator_Seven in 2025-Seven Degrees
Mellon also noted the network’s positioned 7plus as its digital flagship after an audience growth of 30% over the last year and the acquisition of full digital rights for AFL and cricket.
“The platform is maximising its investment in sports rights by expanding its audience reach through innovative content offerings, most notably the introduction of an alternative kids’ commentary for selected AFL matches and a Hindi commentary feed for all live Australia vs India Test matches.”
She noted the addition of the Hindi commentary feed taps into the cricket-obsessed local Indian community and caters to the growing Hindi-speaking audience in Australia and younger bilingual viewers.
“No doubt many Australians will appreciate the opportunity to enjoy Hindi commentary, especially when Pat Cummins secures a wicket and dismisses Virat Kohli,” Mellon added.
James Graff
James Graff, group transformation director at OMD Sydney, said that Seven looked to ‘steady the ship’ after a year of major disruptions, holding its upfronts at the Sunrise Studios.
He noted the network’s emphasis on the foundations of quality programming celebrated, such as sports and several proven scripted and non-scripted genres.
Graff said the announcement of REDiQ4U was noteworthy, particularly as it provided advertisers with access to audience intelligence from Seven’s internal data points and external data partnerships. But he noted that it has been underutilised in the market with access limited to Seven teams or advertisers with advanced data collaboration strategies.
“The launch of REDiQ4U addresses this limitation by granting agencies and marketers direct login access. This provides planners with an immediate and tangible way to leverage Seven’s intelligence across 14 million Australians.”
Graff said that while the change is expected to drive uptake across the industry, translating the insights into actions will be critical for effectiveness and that advertisers need a strategic plan to fully capitalise on REDiQ4U.
Gereurd Roberts – Group MD, Seven Digital and Andrew Brain – Director Data and Growth
“Without a clear approach, this tool risks contributing to data overload rather than delivering meaningful results. Its most impactful application lies in overlaying Seven’s intelligence with customer data, made possible through partnerships with platforms such as Karlsgate, Liveramp, and Databricks.
“However, personalised messaging and specific audience strategies won’t suit every brief, making it essential to define the role of REDiQ4U within a broader data collaboration approach,” he added.
Graff highlighted the continued evolution of Seven’s AI Factory, in partnership with Databricks. He called it encouraging to see the network experimenting with AI technology, a focus of global SVOD and technology players.
“For Seven, this innovation enhances audience connections across 7Plus. An easy win is Seven enhancing predictive capability, allowing forecasting across future audience consumption at an accuracy rate of 95%..
He said it is beneficial for advertisers to improve audience forecasting ahead of campaigns with opportunities for forward-thinking advertisers already experimenting with AI to partner with the network.
“No specific details were shared, just an openness from Seven to collaborate on specific Generative AI use cases. This provides an experimentation outlet for advertisers, although arguably mostly relevant for those where Databricks and Seven are already key partners,” Graff added.
Sue-Ellen Osborn
Sue-Ellen Osborn, national head of investment at Spark Foundry Australia, called the availability of REDiQ4U’s internal insights platform “a powerful demonstration of how they want to connect more effectively with media agencies and our clients.”
“Seven called this ‘a shift from hindsight to foresight’, and it will be useful for buyers to now have access to a tool that can forecast future viewing behaviour with at least 90% accuracy,” she said.
Osborn noted the network’s 2025 outlook will be centred on consistency and growth, driven by the return of fan-favourite and new non-scripted programming and more AFL content.
Some of the 7AFL team
“Seven’s intent to grow its audience was demonstrated by its BVOD strategy, which is to act like an SVOD platform by launching regular premium, high-quality, first-run programming on 7plus. A strategy that has already helped them significantly grow high-value audiences this year.”
Osborn foresaw the increased streaming audience with the network’s Cricket and AFL offering.
“It is good to hear that they will be offering multiple commentaries on some of their sports content to broaden their appeal and connect with diverse communities, including streaming Cricket with Hindi commentary this summer.
“For some BBL games there will be fun and light-hearted commentary from The Grader Cricket comedy team to connect with younger audiences. Likewise with AFL, there will be a kids commentary team on Sunday afternoon games,” she added.
Gaby Srour
Gaby Srour, media director at Avenue C, said that under Seven’s new leadership, the network will “ground running” in 2025 with a digital-first strategy and a clear response to industry trends and audience demands.
He noted that at the heart of the digital-first transformation is 7Plus, with the network focused on building the platform into a premium content provider.
“The goal, while bold and ambitious, is to position 7Plus as a legitimate alternative to the SVOD giants,” he said.
Srour called the addition of AFL and Cricket to 7Plus “a long-overdue but welcome addition.”
“We can expect Seven to usher in a new generation of sports fans to 7Plus and maybe a few cord-cutting casuals who are no longer willing to pay to watch the odd game on the weekend.”
Meanwhile, on data, Srour said the strides made with REDiQ to bolster third-party data partnership “will power their Phoenix dynamic trading platform, hopefully instilling market confidence in Phoenix after initial industry scepticism.”
7Cricket – Big Bash League
See also:
Seven Degrees 2025: Stranded on Honeymoon Island and Dr Chris Brown lead Seven’s 2025 content slate
Seven Degrees 2025: 7REDiQ shifts insights from hindsight to foresight
Seven Degrees 2025: Seven’s new total TV trading system launch date revealed
Seven Upfront reveals AFL masterplan: Footy seven days a week on raft of new shows
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Top image: Lorraine Woods, Ben Cole, Suzanne Mellon, James Graff, Sue-Ellen Osborn and Gaby Srour