Seven has secured expanded sports rights…and it starts next week

The world’s best surfers will now be regularly seen on the Seven Network, with the network extending its partnership with the World Surf League (WSL) to cover surfing’s biggest and most iconic events.

In a massive coup for surfing lovers, all of the WSL’s live contests and highlights shows across the 2021 season will be broadcast across the Seven Network and live-streamed on 7plus, Australia’s #1 commercial free-to-air BVOD platform.

Seven’s coverage will include every event of the world’s premier surfing competition, the WSL Championship Tour, along with the Challenger Series, Big Wave at Large and Longboard Tour.

Managing director Seven Melbourne and head of network sport, Lewis Martin, said: “There’s no cooler or more captivating sport than surfing so we’re rapt to continue our partnership with the World Surf League. We can’t wait to bring fans the world’s very best surfers competing in the world’s most prestigious events over the next year – all of it live and free on Seven and 7plus.”

The elite shortboard action gets underway on 4 December when the WSL Championship Tour makes its long-awaited return after a 10-month hiatus with the women’s Maui Pro. Reigning world champion Carissa Moore, former Aussie world champs Stephanie Gilmore and Tyler Wright, and American prodigy Caroline Marks will headline a stellar field.

The men’s Championship Tour opens on 8 December with the Billabong Pipe Masters, where the legendary Kelly Slater is bidding for a record eighth victory but faces stiff opposition from reigning world champion Italo Ferreira, Gabriel Medina, John John Florence, and Aussies Julian Wilson and Owen Wright.

This is just the start of a huge year for surfing fans that will continue all the way through to next September, when the Championship Tour culminates in the inaugural WSL Finals at Lower Trestles in San Clemente, California.