Last year AFL lovers got a not-so-pleasant surprise when they realised that the app they used to stream games no longer worked on devices bigger than 7 inches. This was in contrast to the advertising of the app earlier in the year that showed it running full screen on a 10 inch tablet. Unfortunately this year will be the same.
Due to the AFL not thinking of their actual customers when they signed their massive TV rights deal, Telstra are unable to stream any games live on displays bigger than 7 inches. This year, Telstra have made a point of mentioning it in plain sight on their website although it is ambiguous on the AFL website.
While it is still unclear how the AFL came up with this random mobile device figure considering the sheer number of 10 inch tablets out in the wild, it’s apparently here to stay — at least until the next round of TV rights deal is negotiated. Hopefully when that happens the AFL will look to other codes and how they deal with streaming rights.
For at least the 2018 season, customers streaming the match on an iPad, or any other 10 inch tablet, live streaming is still limited to the 7 inch viewing size – the remaining space on the display will feature live scores and statistics which is not ideal, but will supply some ‘valuable’ information.
For now though the deal is pretty good. For ALL Telstra post-paid and pre-paid (with $30+ active recharges) mobile customers they can get not only a free subscription as part of your plan but also be able to stream the footy data free on their mobile. Personally I am thinking of grabbing a Telstra prepaid mobile broadband and recharging for 12 months. I get all the data plus a full data subscription.
For those who are not interested in signing up to Telstra and would rather subscribe through the Play Store you can do exactly that. Beginning with a 2-week free trial, for $4.99 a week, $16.99 a month or $99.99 a year you can get all the benefits of the subscription including:
- Every AFL match streamed live
- Live stas
- On-demand full match replays
- 24 hours AFL.TV
- Live coverage of key events
- Use the AFL Live Pass on up to 5 supported devices
For those interested, I was able to sideload the AFL app on my Android TV and I was able to stream AFLX in full size (which still didn’t make AFLX entertaining). Time will tell if this works when the true AFL season begins in March.
If you are an avid AFL fan, and you don’t mind the 7 inch display live stream limitation head on over to the Play Store and grab the AFL app to check it out. Let us know your preference to get your subscription in the comments below — we always want to hear how others game the system.
I tried to chromecast to my TV last year when the 7 inch maximum was in effect and I got an alert stating that I could not cast this app due to the 7 inch maximum viewing size, so no go.
In a way I don’t see this as a big issue. If I were watching the game on a tablet I would likely also want to see some stats on screen too so it makes some sense to me.
It makes sense to have an option. Not to restrict paying customers to an artificially capped screen size!
The NRL app is the same way.
Not that I want to pay for AFL streaming but for anyone that does I’m wondering if you can stream on a sub 7″ device and just cast your screen output to a tv e.t.c.
Might be a potential workaround.
I used to either Chromecast my screen or do HDMI out but they stopped that last year 🙁
I did work out how to screen it from phone to TV last year. Not sure if it works this year or not yet. I didn’t do anything very special, just found it by accident.
I’ll take a screen shot of the TV and post back if it works. Not long to go for the season start… Go Tiges! 🙂