Just like diving back into your favourite show after a long hiatus, remembering the Upfronts after a hot Aussie summer requires a recap.
That’s why ThinkTV has prepared this comprehensive refresher with all the must-know details and announcements from Seven, Nine and Paramount.
Forget the cliffhangers – we’ve got all the details to help you stay in the loop and ahead of the game.
Given Total TV’s track record for driving brand awareness, sales and boosting the performance of other media channels, you don’t want to miss this.
With a raft of new programming and innovations galore, there’s plenty of opportunity in store. Here’s what’s coming to your screens in the next 12 months.
Nine
Innovations
Nine has formed relationships with Analytic Partners, Mutinex, Annelect, GroupM, IPG and Publicis Groupe to prove the power and efficacy of Total television, its role in the marketing ecosystem and the importance of top of the funnel advertising for brands. Working with Nine’s advertising partners, the market mix modelling project aims to prove or disprove 30 hypotheses to help inform better campaign planning and deliver better results.
Behind the scenes, Nine has rebuilt its data stack to give advertisers access to comprehensive, real-time insights, targeting and sales-based measurement built on first party audiences. The refreshed data stack will ensure return on investment for advertisers.
Nine will also introduce prime-time television inventory into the 9Galaxy platform meaning campaign delivery is 100% guaranteed – no shortfalls, no makegoods. The next evolution of 9Galaxy, 9Galaxy+, is in the early stages of development and the next-generation platform promises to revolutionise the way advertisers manage cross-platform campaigns. It will enable integrated trading making it possible to buy audiences across all of Nine’s platforms through a single, unified interface.
Built to streamline operations, 9Galaxy+ will integrate directly with Nine’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and leverage real-time audience insights via Nine’s Adobe CDP. This will allow for better-informed buying decisions, ensuring every campaign is optimised to reach the right audience at the right time, in the right context.
In 2025, Nine will launch automated campaign reports with self-serve dashboards for every 9Now campaign. These reports will feature in-target delivery and reach metrics, 9Tribes analytics, and footfall traffic reports powered by Near.
Additionally, a partnership with Adgile will see every Nine campaign independently measured for effectiveness and attribution to provide real-time insights.
In partnership with DataCo, Nine will integrate rich consumer profiles based on aggregated category spend via ANZ data. DataCo securely connects this valuable data with Nine’s own to provide advertisers with sophisticated insights into sales uplift and category spend outcomes, linking them to exposed audiences to measure advertising impact.
Programming
NEW IN 2025
The Floor is the ultimate trivia showdown, hosted by Rodger Corser (Doctor Doctor, Underbelly). In this battle of brains, 81 Aussies will face off on a colossal, futuristic floor, all competing for a life-changing grand prize of $200,000.
Love knows no age, and The Golden Bachelor is here to prove that the best love stories often unfold later in life. After its success in the US, the beloved series is set to make hearts flutter across Australia, a modern twist on romance for the golden years.
The acclaimed and award-winning New Zealand drama Madam, starring Rachel Griffiths and Danielle Cormack, is set to premiere on the 9Network in 2025. American Mackenzie (Mack) Leigh (Griffiths) lives in small-town New Zealand with her husband Rob (Martin Henderson) and their two sons. When Mack discovers Rob has been seeing a sex worker, she’s not angry but surprisingly inspired. With no money and no experience, Mack creates her own “feminist, ethical brothel”.
From the creators of Escape to the Château, Château DIY Australia follows intrepid Australians looking for a new life in France as they renovate abandoned châteaux, restoring them to their former magnificence.
RETURNING IN 2025
Australia’s most talked about social experiment, Married at First Sight, returns for its 12th season, marking a decade since the reality juggernaut began.
For the first time, The Block is heading to a country town – picturesque Daylesford – for its landmark 21st season. Meanwhile, Travel Guides, the series following ordinary Aussies on extraordinary adventures around the world, returns for an eighth season.
LEGO® Masters Australia is back with its strongest competition yet, assembling the greatest builders from around the globe in a battle of epic proportions. Contestants from six countries – Canada, China, Finland, Sweden, the USA, and New Zealand – will take on Australia’s own past winners and finalists in the ultimate Grandmasters showdown.
Tipping Point, which launched in 2024, returns in 2025 to keep families on the edge of their seats. The Hundred with Andy Lee is back, featuring 100 everyday Aussies and top comedians uncovering what the country is really thinking. And Parental Guidance returns with a special event series tackling critical conversations shaping parenting in Australia.
The heartfelt series Big Miracles, narrated by Lisa McCune, returns for its third season. The emotional finale for Sheila and Tyson, who will finally have their baby after years of struggle, and new stories like singles preserving their fertility, will captivate viewers.
The award-winning observational documentary series Taronga: Who’s Who In The Zoo is back, offering an all-access journey through one of Australia’s most renowned zoos.
Emergency returns providing an inside look at one of Australia’s busiest trauma hospitals. With new faces and returning favourites, the series highlights the compassion and expertise of the staff in a fast-paced, high-stakes world.
Paramedics once again pulls back the curtain on the extraordinary world of emergency response, showcasing the brave individuals on the frontlines of critical care.
Finally, Space Invaders returns for its fifth season, helping families declutter their hearts and homes in this heartfelt program.
NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
In 2025, Today continues to be a morning ritual, delivering the latest in news, current affairs, sport, politics, showbiz, and lifestyle.
9News remains Australia’s trusted source for reliable news coverage. In 2025, 9News will expand its premium video content across broadcast, 9Now, nine.com.au, mobile, and social media, providing greater access through an omnichannel approach with a single team working across Today, A Current Affair, and 60 Minutes.
60 Minutes, the 9Network’s flagship weekly current affairs program, continues to exemplify investigative journalism while A Current Affair, hosted by Ally Langdon on weekdays and Deb Knight on Saturdays, remains Australia’s top-rated daily current affairs show.
FAST, MULTICHANNELS AND BVOD
In a deal with BBC Studios, the 9Network is launching six dedicated FAST channels, bringing some of the UK’s most beloved shows to Australian viewers. 9Now will feature more than 300 titles on-demand, spanning comedy, lifestyle, and factual programming.
BBC Comedy delivers iconic British humour, from talk shows to timeless sitcoms. BBC Food showcases top chefs like Jamie Oliver, Nigel Slater, and Rachel Khoo. BBC Home & Garden inspires home makeovers and garden transformations. BBC Earth offers awe-inspiring natural history content, while Top Gear fans can enjoy motoring thrills. Antiques Roadshow celebrates hidden treasures with back-to-back episodes.
SPORT
In 2025, Nine continues to deliver premier sporting events, including the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open in tennis, as well as the Laver Cup. Rugby fans can enjoy the NRL season, NRLW, Women’s State of Origin, the Ampol State of Origin, Super Rugby Pacific matches, and the British & Irish Lions Tour. Football enthusiasts can catch the UEFA Champions League Final, along with matches from the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League. Women’s golf takes the spotlight with the Australian WPGA Championship. And weekly programs including Wide World of Sports and Footy Classified round out Nine’s extensive sports lineup.
Seven
Innovation
Seven’s Total TV trading system, Phoenix will go live on 2 March. Set to revolutionise planning and buying across metropolitan, regional and digital platforms, it is now open for bookings.
Seven’s partnership with cloud, data and AI companies with Databricks, and the integration of AI technology, is a key part of the Phoenix roadmap and will ensure deeper audience understanding. Through innovations such as highly accurate audience predictions modelling across 7plus, advertisers will gain powerful insights to drive campaigns.
As part of Phoenix, every Total TV campaign will include real-time effectiveness reports, providing transparency and insights to measure campaign success.
Seven also takes a step forward in data-driven audience intelligence with the launch of REDiQ4U, a new feature providing direct access to consumer insights data platform, 7REDiQ, for agencies and marketers.
REDiQ4U delivers Seven’s commitment to its data intelligence being shared, not sold, giving advertisers a powerful tool for transparent, future-focused audience insights, bridging the gap from consumer analysis to precise prediction and offering foresight into consumer behaviour.
The new product gives marketers secure, direct access to audience insights drawn from more than 3,000 real-world and digital data points, with visibility into high-value audience segments. Leveraging partnerships with Ticketek, Coles360, CarExpert, Raiz, Equifax, LandmarksID and Weatherzone – plus an exclusive partnership with VISA – REDiQ4U empowers brands to create impactful campaigns and activate them across Seven’s channels.
The core power of REDiQ4U lies in its ability to predict audience behaviour up to 28 days in advance with 95% accuracy, fuelled by insights from nearly 14 million verified and consented Australians.
The predictive capability is a result of Seven’s strategic partnerships with Ovation, the analytics arm of Ticketek, and Databricks, and enables advertisers to make data-driven decisions in advance, aligning campaigns with future viewing behaviours. Tested initially with a “next seven day” outlook and achieving more than 90% accuracy, the platform has now extended to a 28-day prediction.
Programming
Next year, Seven will be home to 25 local entertainment shows including Farmer Wants A Wife, Australian Idol, My Kitchen Rules, The Voice, Dancing With The Stars and The 1% Club, plus Home and Away, Better Homes and Gardens, new shows and more.
NEW IN 2025
Stranded on Honeymoon Island puts adventure, survival and, above all, isolation at the heart of this quest for love. But will the experience lead to love or loathing? The couples are matched by experts but don’t know which partner has been chosen for them until an intimate commitment ceremony. Immediately after the ceremony, they are abandoned on deserted tropical islands for the adventure of a lifetime.
In Once In A Lifetime, Dr Chris Brown, embarks on global wildlife journeys, joined by entertaining Australian personalities (including Mick Molloy, Amanda Keller, Kate Ritchie and Matt Preston) as his untrained and unqualified veterinary assistants.
The host of Seven’s smash hit The 1% Club steps into his own stand-up show, Jim Jefferies And Friends. Featuring comedy legends Dave Hughes, Jimeoin, Arj Barker, Tommy Little, Nikki Osborne, Mel Buttle, Felicity Ward and many more, this strictly adults- only affair will see Jim in rip-snorting form as master of ceremonies.
Aussie music will take centre stage with the legendary Cold Chisel’s 50th-anniversary tour, Working Class Man, a documentary based on Jimmy Barnes’ best-selling book; and Live It Up: The Mental As Anything Story, a hilarious and moving documentary about one of Australia’s most-loved bands.
RETURNING IN 2025
Home and Away reigns as Australia’s most-watched drama series, the biggest show on 7plus, and the award-winning and high-rating drama RFDS returns for its highly anticipated third season.
After celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Australia’s #1 lifestyle show – Better Homes and Gardens – returns, while TV WEEK Gold Logie winner Larry Emdur and the Chasers are back for a new season of The Chase Australia.
Also coming in 2025 are new seasons of the iconic Border Security: Australia’s Front Line and Highway Patrol, plus The Hunters, The Rise And Fall Of Kings Cross, The Great Outdoors and Off The Grid with Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge.
The biggest night in Australian TV – the TV WEEK Logie Awards – will sparkle on Seven and 7plus again in 2025, along with other special events including Melbourne’s Good Friday Appeal, Sydney’s Carols In The Domain and the Channel 7 Telethon in Perth, which raised a record $83.3 million in 2024.
FAST, MULTICHANNELS AND BVOD
In 2025 Seven is taking a “7plus first” approach to its new overseas programming.
From NBC comes Suits: LA, in which Ted Black, a former federal prosecutor from New York, reinvents himself representing the most powerful clients in Los Angeles; Grosse Pointe Garden Society, centres on four members of a suburban garden club, all from different walks of life, who get caught up in murder and mischief; and The Hunting Party, a follows a team of investigators assembled to track down and capture dangerous killers who have just escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist.
From BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the creators of the critically acclaimed and multi- Emmy Award-winning Planet Earth and Blue Planet, in association with Universal Television Alternative Studio, The Americas is an epic 11-part event series, narrated by Tom Hanks.
New exclusive content on 7plus in 2025 includes St Denis Medical, Doc, Ludwig and The Crow Girl. Plus there are returning overseas favourites The Rookie, 9-1-1, 9-1-1 Lonestar, The Irrational and Alert: Missing Persons Unit and 7Bravo shows including Below Deck Down Under, Below Deck, Below Deck Mediterranean, Deadly Waters with Captain Lee, Paris & Nicole: The Encore and Real Housewives of New York City.
NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
Seven’s commitment to bringing all Australians the best and most up-to-date news and current affairs will increase in 2025, with a new hour-long 12 noon bulletin.
It comes on the back of Seven adding an extra half hour to The Morning Show, which will now run from 9am to noon.
They will join Seven’s other leading news and current affairs programs, from Australia’s #1 nightly news program 7NEWS and the #1 breakfast show Sunrise to 7NEWS Spotlight, Weekend Sunrise and The Latest from 7NEWS.
SPORT
Seven’s 2024-25 summer of cricket includes the Australia vs India Test showdown, the Women’s Ashes, BBL and WBBL.
And cricket is just the start: next year will bring a wealth of sport on Seven and 7plus Sport with AFL, AFLW, the Brownlow Medal, Supercars Championship including the Bathurst 1000, NFL and Superbowl LIX, horse racing 52 weeks of the year, LIV Golf, surfing, cycling, athletics, netball, hockey, extreme sports, and much more.
AFL fans are in for a treat, with Seven presenting AFL content every day of the week during the 2025 season. Also exclusive to Seven and 7plus – the Brownlow Medal and the AFL Grand Final.
The Front Bar’s regular AFL shows and cricket and year-in-review specials return in 2025. The AFL programs include The Agenda Setters, Unfiltered, Extra Time, Sunday Footy Feast, The Wash Up, Kane’s Call, podcasts and more.
Seven is also commissioning a pre-season documentary inside an AFL club, in the lead-up to the season, to run after The Front Bar titled Full Sweat.
Seven in 2024
Paramount
Innovations
In 2025, Paramount Australia will launch a new converged advertising trading technology called Paramount Connect allowing marketers to target and deliver audiences across every platform and program in Paramount’s content ecosystem.
Phase 1 of Paramount Connect will bring together broadcast video on demand (BVOD) platform 10 Play including more than 50 free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels, and streaming platform Paramoun+ , into a unified digital ecosystem, delivering a single customer view for advertising partners.
Phase 2 of Paramount Connect will bring linear TV into the fold in the second half of 2025 with frictionless transactions across all screens and platforms.
Paramount Connect will be enabled by FreeWheel, a Comcast Company and leading global technology platform for the premium video advertising industry, delivering a single-entry point for advertisers to seamlessly plan, trade, and measure total TV campaigns.
Paramount Brand Studio will continue to support the sales team to create campaigns and products that fans can buy, book and experience to maximise the viewing experience and deliver commercial success for Paramount’s partners.
After a global, proof-of-concept pilot for Shoppable TV, KERV and Paramount are scaling Connected TV (CTV) advertising through Pause to Shop an advertising solution that turns brand exposure into product discovery opportunities. Pause to Shop allows advertisers to convert relevant content moments with specific on-screen brand exposure, or even similar products or services, into immediate consumer engagement.
Similarly, Own the Moment gives advertisers the ability to claim and enhance key contextual moments by aligning messaging with scenes that evoke desired emotional connections.
Paramount Australia’s partnership with Innovid is also expanding with the introduction of social and vertical video solutions, giving advertisers without a brand TVC the ability to maximise social media and vertical video creative assets to create a premium CTV ad experience for the biggest screen in the house.
On the data front, three new premium data partners join Paramount: Circana provides retail insights; the Australian Bureau of Statistics with demographic targeting capabilities and a global payment provider with transaction data.
Paramount’s first-party data points have also been harnessed to curate 80 premium, off-the-shelf audiences called Paramount Personas enriched with insights from all of Paramount’s data partners including smrtr, Coles 360 and Samba TV.
Programming
NEW IN 2025
Sam Pang is creating and starring in his very own weekly show on 10. Sam has been part of the 10 family for over a decade and has been commissioned to create a brand-new comedy show for 2025. His quick wit has kept Aussies laughing for years, and we know his fresh new program will give audiences exactly what they want.
Ghosts Australia, coming to Network 10 and Paramount+, is a spirited eight-part family comedy series set in a haunted country house filled with hilarious new ghosts embodying the chaos and messiness of Australian history.
The Inspired Unemployed present The List, a bucket-list comedy travel show following Jack and Matt as they explore destinations from Japan to South Africa, Germany to Finland, Malaysia to India, with plenty of laughs and unexpected moments.
Airport 24/7 offers exclusive access to Melbourne Airport’s air traffic control tower, spotlighting the daily chaos of the Aussie airline industry, from air traffic controllers to baggage handlers and border patrol.
House Hunters Australia pairs buyers with agents in a rollercoaster quest for dream homes, from suburban oases to high-end city pads.
Todd Samson is on a mission to find out what motivates people to do, well, ‘questionable’ things in his new series, Todd Sampson’s Why? While Watson, a modern take on Sherlock Holmes’ partner, follows John Watson as he pivots from sleuthing to solving medical mysteries.
There’s also a live action Christmas feature film called Staycation to be produced by Ludo Studio, the makers of Bluey.
RETURNING IN 2025
Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation – now known as Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Gen – returns to 10 with a new host and captains for fresh laughs. Gen X, Millennials, and Zoomers battle it out in a lively, intergenerational showdown.
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! is back with a new batch of celebrity campmates for more jungle adventures.
Two seasons of Australian Survivor kick off: Brains v Brawn II in February, followed by Survivor: Australia v The World, pitting local legends against global players.
MasterChef Australia: Back To Win serves up fan favourites vying for another shot at the trophy.
Taskmaster Australia returns with Tom Gleeson and Tom Cashman overseeing lateral-thinking celebs, including Tommy Little, Lisa McCune, and Dave Hughes.
The Inspired Unemployed bring back the chaos with The Inspired Unemployed (Impractical) Jokers while the Logie-winning Have You Been Paying Attention? returns with host Tom Gleisner and regulars Sam Pang and Ed Kavalee.
The Cheap Seats offers another season of witty recaps with Melanie Bracewell and Tim McDonald and beloved shows The Dog House Australia, Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly Australia, Deal or No Deal, and the Logie-winning Gogglebox Australia also return.
Popular international dramas are back with new seasons of Law & Order: SVU, FBI, NCIS, and NCIS: Sydney. Joining the lineup is NCIS: Origins, a 1991-set prequel following Jethro Gibbs at the start of his career.
And, of course, life in Ramsay Street continues when Neighbours hits our screens once more.
FAST, MULTICHANNELS AND BVOD
Binge on almost a dozen dedicated Nickelodeon channels with NickToons, NickTeens, Nick Classics, SpongeBob SquarePants and PAW Patrol. Or catch up on the latest shenanigans on MTV with 10 channels to choose from including MTV Pranks, MTV Life, MTV Reality and MTV Ridiculousness. Get your fix of South Park or catch up with local hits including Offspring, Australia’s Next Top Model, Prisoner, Good Chef Bad Chef, MasterChef, and World Of Survivor.
An exclusive channel with BuzzFeed Food in partnership with Val Morgan Digital has also launched for all your food inspo.
NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
The Project will continue to provide Australians with their dose of news delivered differently six nights a week, while 10 News First will present the most comprehensive coverage of local, national and international news stories.
And news junkies can catch 10’s weekday news offerings around the clock with 10 News First: Lunchtime at 1pm and 10 News First: Afternoon at 3.30pm. There’s also 10 News First at 5pm and then 10’s Late News at 10pm on 10 Play and 10.30pm on 10.
SPORT
Paramount Australia and Football Australia have inked a multi-platform deal through to 2028 showcasing all matches of the CommBank Matildas, Subway Socceroos, and the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027. Network 10 and Paramount+ remain the home of A-League Men’s and Women’s matches for the 2024/25 season while basketball fans can catch the NBL with marquee games on Sundays at 2:30pm on 10 and at 4:30pm on 10 BOLD. Motorsport enthusiasts can look forward to the MotoGP World Championship in October and the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in March.
Paramount in 2024
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