Where other radio networks are decreasing their staff, local shows and TV interests, Sports Entertainment Network (SEN) is doing the opposite. After last week announcing lineups for 2025 with new faces and expanded roles for talent, the network’s TV arm, Rainmaker, have now said they’ll produce three new AFL centred shows each week in a commercial partnership with the Seven Network in 2025.
Under the partnership the new shows will see SEN CEO Craig Hutchison (main picture) return to the Seven Network after 18 years to host a program called The Agenda Setters, joined on the panel by SEN 1116‘s Kane Cornes and, fascinatingly, by recent Triple M Melbourne Breakfast recruit Nick Riewoldt. Nick and his family have recently returned to Australia after a few years in the US.
News and opinion driven The Agenda Setters will air each Monday and Tuesday night on Seven and 7plus, produced live from Rainmaker’s TV studios at SEN’s Southbank offices. The trio above will do Mondays. Tuesday’s line up will feature Cornes, but not Hutchison or Riewoldt. Those joining Cornes will be announced in the new year closer to the start of AFL season 2025.
At the end of 2023, despite a commentary and sports journalism career that was going from strength to strength, Hamish McLachlan, when Seven lost the rights to the Olympics, decided that he and his family would move to France for a year. He’s back and now Rainmaker will also produce a new interview show he will host called Unfiltered, which will air on Wednesdays.
Hutchison said the shows will reshape the football media landscape:
“Seven is the home of free-to-air AFL, and has an unrivalled history, legacy and contribution to AFL football. These new shows will shape and set the agenda of the weekday discussion of football, which is at the heart of the game.
The media and opinions around the game is the zeitgeist of what fuels Australian football, and we will bring the game’s biggest names to the table and call it as it is.
And on a personal level, to return to Seven – where I spent many years earlier in my career – is an honour.”
Seven Network Director of Sport, Chris Jones, said the new schedule was a win for fans, with the network to have AFL programming seven days a week across the network on broadcast and digital streaming in 2025:
“‘The Agenda Setters’ on Mondays and Tuesdays will be appointment viewing, and together with Rainmaker, we’ve assembled an incredibly experienced production team for this show to complement our unrivalled on-air lineup.
“‘Unfiltered’ on Wednesdays is going to take us behind the curtain and give fans the opportunity to learn more about the person behind the athlete. With Hamish McLachlan at the helm, viewers will be granted the best storytelling possible with the biggest and most fascinating names in the game.
At Seven, we can’t wait to bring footy fans more content than ever before, every week of the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season on Seven and 7plus.”
With the retirement of Ray Hadley from the Nine Network, SCA’s Triple M losing local drive shows for networked and seeking to divest themselves of their TV assets and KIIS 1065 (and therefore Kyle and Jackie O) choosing to support the Penrith Panthers and NRL late in the 2023 season, SEN has seen a massive opportunity to go against the flow and invest in local, build their talent bank and partner in free to air television.
I’m sincerely hoping it pays off.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer editor and podcaster for Radioinfo