Hey guys,
I'm looking for a way to watch the footy from overseas.
Can't get it on TV and the afl.com.au website only lets you access to replays if you are within Australia.
Up till now now I have been signing up to watchafl.afl.com.au, but every year they are raising the prices and doesn't always work very well.
I was wondering if anyone knows of a torrent website or something of the sort.. so that I will be able to get the games every week.
thanks in advance to all the helpers!
You can occasionally find dodgy pirate streams online for AFL, but the quality is (or used to be) pretty average and they're full of those annoying popups. Not worth the trouble.
Last year I had a free AFL Live Pass (which was Telstra, I think now Optus). This can be accessed from overseas if you use a geo-dodger (I use unotelly). I tried it last year and but the quality was terrible, unwatchable. It could be my location (Germany)... best bet would be to sign up for a free trial and see how you go.
I signed up to watchafl.afl.com.au again - despite the frustration it's better than the alternatives. It seems they try some new technology every year and it takes three quarters of the season to fix it. last year for me it would at about 10 minutes into the 3rd quarter it would start looping back to the half time break, and the only way to get past it was to watch the half time break... eventually it would catch up at some point in the last quarter. Their support team blamed the ipad and they couldn't change it... despite not having this problem with any other streaming service... anyway...
The price for watchafl.afl.com.au does change per region (depending on switching between USD/EUR and probably GBP). I found the cheapest option was to take out a club membership that includes the watchafl subscription (for me, it was a Global Lion subscription... $165). All clubs offer it and depending on who you support the price will be more or less (probably depends on what crap "supporter package" they throw in -Hawks do one for $173, St. Kilda do one for $155, Geelong/Essendon $150). I assume the club at least gets some money from this too.
Compare this to $153USD (over $210AUD) or 109€ ($170AUD) to subscribe directly via watchafl.
I found that I have less problems with watchafl when watching via a computer, and can also watch via the inbuilt browser on my samsung TV. it does sometimes freeze or drop in quality, but restarts and runs pretty well. Fingers crossed it works better on ipad this year.
One more option: if you know anyone who has a Foxtel subscription with Fox Footy, check if they'll lend you (or rent to you) their Foxtel Go access. You also need a geo-dodging method, but could work. Unfortunately doesn't work if they get Foxtel via Optus (otherwise this is the method I would use!!).