Fox Footy
Australian subscription television channel
Fox Footy (stylised in all caps as FOX FOOTY) is an Australian rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Australia operated out of its Melbourne based studios and available throughout Australia on Foxtel, and Optus Television. The channel is a revival of the former Fox Footy Channel, which was in operation between 2002 and 2006. The channel recommenced prior to the 2012 AFL season after a new broadcast agreement was reached between the former Premier Media Group, Austar, Foxtel and the Australian Football League (AFL).
As of the week of 24 September 2023, the channel reached 753,000 viewers, making the highest rated channel owned by Fox Sports Australia and the second highest rated subscription channel on Foxtel behind Lifestyle.
History
Foxtel had previously operated the original Fox Footy Channel from 2002 to 2006, but closed the channel when Foxtel's AFL broadcast deal ended at the end of the 2006 season after failing to agreeing at the time a new agreement with free-to-air broadcasters Seven and Ten. On 8 February 2007, Foxtel came to an agreement to broadcast four games a week from 2007 to 2011, up from three during 2002–2006 on Fox Sports channels, although it didn't include an AFL channel.
It was announced on 28 April 2011 that the channel would be revived for the 2012 AFL season, as part of the new broadcast rights deal that gave Foxtel rights to show all regular-season AFL matches live. The channel kept the Fox branding of its predecessor, which was originally licensed from 20th Century Fox in September 2001. It returned exclusively on Foxtel and its broadcasting partners, under the proposed new name of "Fox Sports AFL", which was later changed back to its original name "Fox Footy".
“Fox Footy” enters the record as australian subscription television channel. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Footy, Australian and subscription can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Fox Footy” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Footy, Australian and subscription provides the most credible route into that argument.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5476706. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2002, 2006, 2012 and 2023.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Fox Footy”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Fox Footy primary sources, Fox Footy archive and Footy research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Fox Footy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.