WSL Partnership With Seven Continues

The World Surf League (WSL) has announced its official free-to-air partnership with Seven Network will be extended in 2022.

The partnership involves all WSL programming televised through Seven and streamed through 7plus.

The upcoming 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.

Rip Curl WSL Finals and 11 CT event hour-long recap shows are planned to take place during the 2022 season, which will be streamed on 7live and 7mate.

WSL Asia Pacific general manager, Andrew Stark, said: “Network Seven continuing their commitment and support of surfing and the World Surf League is fantastic news.”

“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,” he said.

Seven Melbourne managing director 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,” Martin said.

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, with women competing for the world title point for the first time.

The news follows a recent broadcast announcement, where Fox Sports Australia announced a new expansion of their deal with the World Surf League (WSL) for the 2022 season.