# Fox League

Fox League is an Australian subscription television channel dedicated to screening rugby league (both domestic and international) matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited and is available throughout Australia on Foxtel. The channel was launched on 27 February 2017.

## History

On 27 November 2015, the Australian Rugby League Commission announced that Fox Sports had secured the rights to air all National Rugby League games excluding the NRL Grand Final (which continues to be aired on Nine Network) live for the 2018–22 seasons. Additionally, it was announced that the current rights agreement had been altered to allow Fox Sports to also have the live rights for all games excluding the Grand Final for the 2016 and 2017 seasons, however, a dedicated yet-to-be-named NRL channel to showcase these rights would not launch until the 2017 season.
In February 2017 it was announced the new channel would be called Fox League and would officially launch on 27 February 2017. Ultimately, Fox League replaced Fox Sports 2 on channel 502.
In 2017, the NRL preliminary finals had 418,000 and 407,000 viewers. In 2020, Fox League began carried in Canada on the pay streaming service DAZN.

## Programming
### Event coverage

Sports programming on Fox League includes the following:
* National Rugby League (2017–present; every game live except the Grand Final)
* Challenge Cup (2017–present)
* Super League (2017–present; three live games per weekend)
* Pacific Rugby League Internationals (2017–present)
* The Knock On Effect NSW Cup (2017–present; one or two games per weekend)
* Hostplus Cup (2017–present; One Finals Series Game Live each weekend & Grand Final Live)
* NRL State Championship (2017–present)
* Pre Season Challenge (2017–present)
* Charity Shield (2017–present)
* Harvey Norman All-Stars (2017–present)
* International Rugby League (2017–present)
* NRL Women's Premiership (2018–present)
* Pacific Championships (2019–present)
* Rugby League World Cup (2022–present)
* Women's Rugby League World Cup (2022–present)
* Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup (2022–present)
* Fijian Cup Touch (2024–present)

#### Special events

* Dally M Awards (2017–present)
* Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame (2018–present)

### News and analysis programming

Fox League airs several studio shows including the programs listed below:
* Kia Thursday Night Football (2017–present)
* VB Friday Night Footy (2017–present)
* Bundaberg Rum NRL Super Saturday (2017–present)
* Chemist Warehouse Sunday Ticket (2017–present)
* KFC Monday Football (2017–present; occasional)
* The Late Show With Matty Johns (2017–present)
* Sunday Night with Matty Johns (2017–present)
* NRL 360 (2017–present)
* NRL Tonight (2017–present)
* The Fan (2018–present)
* The Matty Johns Podcast (2019–present)
* The Final 5 (2020–present)
* Top 5 Rivalries (2020–present)
* Vossy's Awesome 80s (2020–present)
* Season's Best (2020–present)

### Former programming

* League 13 – to –1 (2017)
* League Legends (2017)
* On the Couch with Sterlo (2017)
* Narrow World of Sports (2017–2020)
* The Sunday Wrap (2017)
* NRL Under-20s (2017)
* Queenslanders Only (2017–2019)
* League Life (2017–2019)
* NRL Schoolboy Cup (2017–2019)
* NRL Touch Premiership (2018)
* Rugby League European Championship (2018–2018)
* Big League Wrap (2018–2021)
* Controversy Corner (2018–2020)
* NRL Try Time (2018–2020)
* The Greatest (2018–2019)
* Rugby League World Cup 9s (2019–2019)
* Jersey Flegg Cup (2019–2019 NZ Warriors Home Games)
* NRL Nines (2020)
* Auckland Rugby League (2020)
* Auckland Rugby League National 20's (2021–2022)
* Benji (2022)
* Koori Knockout (2022–2023)
* RFL Championship (2023)

## Personnel

Network executives announced a number of key hosting personnel at the public launch of the station on 16 February 2017.
Network personalities and the media attended the launch for Fox League's 2018 programming slate on 20 February 2018. Further key hosting personnel were announced, in addition to some pre-existing roles from 2017.

## Watch NRL

Outside of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, Fox League operates Watch NRL, a global streaming network. The network streams all games live, including State of Origin and the Grand Final, unlike its domestic counterpart, who broadcasts these games on delay.