How to watch NRL games live and free online in 2025

Published On

February 3, 2025

The 2025 NRL premiership will be the biggest in the league’s long and storied history. The season starts on the 2nd of March and will continue until the Grand Final on October 5, 2025.

Fortunately for rugby fans in Australia, there are more ways than ever to stream the NRL live online in Australia. Use this guide to review the options for watching every NRL match up to this season’s grand final.

Every weekend in the 2025 NRL season promises new and exciting matches. Use the guide below to see the TV fixtures for this round, and where to watch the games live in your city or state.

The 2025 NRL season is split between services that require a subscription and free-to-air TV. Each and every game of this year’s premiership season, up until the grand final, will be screened live with no ads on the Fox League channel.

To watch the NRL live and ad-free, you will need to subscribe to either Foxtel Now, or Kayo Sports.

Fortunately, both Foxtel Now and Kayo Sports currently have free trials, which would allow new customers to watch the NRL live and free online.

You do have another option to watch selected NRL matches live on free-to-air with the 9 Network, but ads will be broadcast during live play, and could interfere with the game’s most pivotal moments.

Likewise, channel nine will only broadcast up to four NRL games live each round, and they will generally not carry any Saturday matches until the 24th round.

The NRL Premiership has its own dedicated Fox League channel, so that league fans have something to watch 24/7. There’s also a free to air NRL broadcast partnership – Channel 9 and 9Now.

Day / GameChannel / Streaming serviceTime
Thursday Night GameNine/Foxtel/Kayo7:50pm (AEST)
Friday Evening GameFoxtel/Kayo6pm (AEST)
Friday Night GameNine/Foxtel/Kayo7:50pm (AEST)
Saturday Afternoon GameFoxtel/Kayo3pm (AEST)
Saturday Evening GameFoxtel/Kayo5:30pm (AEST)
Saturday Night GameFoxtel/Kayo7:35pm (AEST)
Sunday Game 1Nine/Foxtel/Kayo4:00pm (AEST)
Sunday Game 2Foxtel/Kayo6:15pm (AEST)

If streaming NRL matches is your preferred option you can also subscribe to Kayo Sports and get a 7-Day free trial. Normal subscriptions come in 2 prices: ($25 a month for 1 simultaneous stream and $40 a month for 2 simultaneous streams).

The Kayo app is available on a variety of devices such as PCs and Macs, both iOS and Android devices, select Smart TV’s and PlayStations, and delivers live HD streams to enhance your streaming experience.

Kayo also have special NRL game features, including SplitView, Key Moments and a Match Centre. The No-Spoilers option allows fans to you to hide all scores and news while watching the match, and From The Start allows for watching a live broadcast from the beginning.

Another popular feature is Kayo NRL minis, which provide a condensed replay of any matches you may have missed, available at your convenience on-demand. Kayo also offers the exact same programming as Foxtel, including all the same weekly NRL shows, as well as the pre and post-game interviews and match break-downs.

You can subscribe to Foxtel Now to watch NRL games online. Foxtel Now will carry every game of the NRL live and ad-break free until the grand final.

New customers will get a 10-day free trial run when using Foxtel Now. Normal subscriptions cost $54 a month, but this would also include access to all the sport content that Foxtel have to offer.

Foxtel Now will also air replays of every NRL match in the 2025 season, including the Grand Final. The replays, known as ‘Fox Minis’, are twenty minute condensed highlights of the game’s biggest moments.

There’s also a variety of popular NRL programs that will air through-out the week, including NRL Tonight, NRL 360, The Fan show, The Late Show, Sunday Footy and several pre-game and post-game shows containing match break-downs and interviews.

Foxtel Now is available on various devices including PC, Mac, iOS and Android, as well as Telstra TV, Chromecast, the newest PlayStations, and select Smart TVs.

Terrestrial provider Network Nine have broadcasting rights to televise NRL games on free-to-air TV in Australia. Under the current agreement, the Nine network have the rights to up to four live games each week.

Generally, this will include the matches on Thursday and Friday night, one Sunday afternoon game, and any match that falls on Monday or a public holiday. Starting from round 24, however, Nine will carry one Saturday match live.

These games are available live on channel 9 or 9 Mate. The games live on Nine are also available to watch later on-demand, using the 9Now online platform. The NRL streaming rights for the matches not being televised live on Nine belong exclusively to Foxtel and Kayo.

In addition to select live games each round, Network Nine has other content to keep Rugby League fans updated. The two most popular NRL shows on Nine are 100% Footy, where Phil Gould, Paul Gallen and James Bracey debate the biggest NRL topics, and the Sunday Footy Show, which provides a round-up of all the NRL games on TV that week.

The NRL on channel 9 and 9 Mate are great for fans who don’t follow any specific team, or only watch the matches during the finals series. For passionate NRL viewers, the reduced schedule, programming limitations and ad-breaks are not ideal. To Channel Nine’s advantage though, they do have exclusive rights to televise the NRL Grand Final live as it happens.

Stay up to date with this interactive NRL Ladder, which includes information in each team page for where to watch every NRL match live.

#TeamMPWDLGPTS
1
Canberra Raiders
14 11 0 3 396:30024
2
Canterbury Bulldogs
12 10 2 0 306:21424
3
New Zealand Warriors
13 10 2 1 291:25624
4
Melbourne Storm
12 8 4 0 404:23322
5
Cronulla Sharks
14 8 0 6 332:30618
6
Brisbane Broncos
13 6 2 5 338:29416
7
Penrith Panthers
13 5 3 5 286:29515
8
NQ Cowboys
12 5 3 4 274:32615
9
Redcliffe Dolphins
13 6 0 7 350:25814
10
Manly Sea Eagles
14 6 0 8 322:30014
11
Sydney Roosters
12 5 2 5 290:31214
12
St.George Illawarra
13 5 2 6 272:33114
13
Wests Tigers
13 5 2 6 268:33014
14
South Sydney Rabbitohs
13 6 0 7 223:30514
15
Newcastle Knights
13 5 0 8 185:25012
16
Parramatta Eels
13 4 2 7 231:33612
17
Gold Coast Titans
13 4 2 7 268:39012

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