The National Rugby League has significantly improved its online presence in recent years, showing they understand just how much people value getting their footy fix on the go.
With the 2024 season underway the NRL is continuing to refine their online app, the NRL Official App. The NRL Official App helps fans connect with every game via live scores, player stats, fixtures, full match replays, highlights and more.
But the NRL Official App does not offer live matches, for that and other reasons, the Kayo Sports streaming service was created.
This hugely popular streaming service, backed by the resources and technical know-how of the experienced Fox Sports team, has been making a very good impression amongst fans of many and varied sporting codes.
So which offers a better and more resourceful NRL experience? We’ll explore the differences and you can decide.
What makes Kayo different than the Official NRL App?
When it comes to live streaming the NRL Telstra Premiership, there’s been no denying that the Official NRL App has been the go-to for years. Unfortunately this aspect is no longer available as the live streaming through the association at Telstra came to an end in 2021.
With changes to the way the NRL Live app works from the 2021 season onwards, the ability to live-stream games – previously already restricted to a 7″ maximum screen size – has been removed completely. Full replays and highlights continue to be offered in the app, as do live scores and statistics, but those wanting to stream games live will want to be heading to Kayo Sports.
Kayo, on the other hand, is a product of the streaming age, where almost everything people watch is streamed to their TV in some form or other. Kayo is no exception to that, with its apps allowing you to send video to your TV via Chromecast in full high definition.
But not only that – there’s also dedicated Kayo apps for popular streaming devices like the Apple TV and the two models of Telstra TV. That’s really the ideal way to watch the NRL on Kayo – sit back on the couch, grab your remote, and fire up the game!
Kayo even supports “SplitView”, letting you have up to two streaming windows on the screen at once. That lets you keep an eye on several games at the same time or, when available, watch multiple camera streams from the one event. It’s brilliant!
Stream Rugby League on Kayo Sports
Watch every game from every round of the NRL season + International Tests with a monthly no contract plan.
What else do Kayo and the Official NRL App deliver?
The most important adjunct to the all-important live streams is, of course, the stats. Both Kayo and the NRL app offer extensive real-time stats as the game progresses, keeping you on top of exactly who’s doing what and when.
But a review of Kayo reveals they take it a step further with some clever features, the most impressive being “Key Moments”. This lets you start up a stream of a game already in progress and quickly catch up, by instantly zipping to the bits of the game that made a difference.
If you prefer, though, you can start streaming an NRL match even after it’s already kicked off, with a “no spoilers” feature making sure you can stream the game “as live” even if you jumped in half way through.
FeaturedBy comparison, the NRL official app now only lets you watch match replays and highlights, so if you miss half the game you’ll have to try to catch up with it later.
How Much does the Official NRL App cost?
The official NRL app has free access with unrestricted access to highlights, extended highlights, press conferences, full replays and NRLTV if your service provider for mobile or broadband is Telstra. You’ll obviously need network connectivity so worthwhile having a good mobile network service provider to avoid poor signal quality.
Being a Telstra customer as well as having the NRL app enables exclusive ticketing offers across Telstra Premiership events. In addition, if you’re into tipping, it gives you free entry into NRL tipping and NRL Fantasy.
How much is Kayo Sports?
Kayo, meanwhile, is playing on a different level, with a comprehensive live and on-demand TV coverage of not just the National Rugby League, but also dozens of other sporting codes from around Australia and the world, from cricket and golf to American football and baseball, surfing, AFL and the NBA in crisp high definition on your big screen TV or computer screen as well as your phone.
With the added quality and flexibility, as well as the extra features, the monthly price of $25 (one device) or $35 (two devices) is well worth it. The NRL app’s extreme restrictions on video streaming make it hard to recommend in comparison.
Which One Scores better?
The NRL official app is certainly a great go-to for fans of the game, if all you want to do is check some news, browse the fixtures or watch a game replay on your phone while out and about.
But Kayo, with its 7-day free trial, high-quality video, next-generation streaming tech and innovative features, is the definite must-have choice for fans who really want to see a piece of the action.
What people are asking about Kayo Sports
If you’re having issues with your subscription, or would like to know more about Kayo Sports and its offering, you’ll have to contact Kayo via a digital medium as they do not operate their service model with a phone number or call centre.
Their Kayo Support Crew operate 8:30am – 11pm AET 7 days a week and you’ll be able to contact in the following ways by heading to their website:
– Live chat: There is an option on their site in the bottom right hand corner to chat with their customer service staff.
– Submit a form online: Go to their contact page and fill out a form and someone will be in touch shortly.
– Send them an email: for any enquiries, send Kayo an email on help@kayosports.com.au
A company called Streamotion owns and operates Kayo, which is why you’ll occasionally see references to things like creating and managing your Streamotion account. Streamotion is a part of the Foxtel group of companies, which is how Kayo gets access to all the content from Fox Sports.
The pricing for Kayo Sports is kept very simple and straightforward. There are 2 options: $25/month for Kayo One and $35 for Kayo Basic (which allows streaming on 2 screens at one time).
While the exact amount of data you’ll use while streaming Kayo varies depending on what you’re watching and whether you’re using any of the special features (especially Split View) in general you should expect data usage to average around 3.25GB per hour. If you want to limit your data usage, you can set Kayo to stream in Standard Definition, which takes data usage down to 0.5GB per hour.
Thanks to its access to the full resources of Fox Sports as well as ESPN, Kayo delivers over 30 sporting codes featuring multiple different leagues and competitions from Australia and around the world. If there’s a sport you follow, you’re almost certainly going to find it on Kayo. check out the range of sports and see for yourself!
Because Kayo is the Australian licensee of the various sports that it streams from Australia and around the world, the service can’t be used from outside of Australia, even if you’re an Australian customer who’s travelling. Using a VPN to access Kayo from overseas is also not supported. Remember that as there’s no lock-in contract, you can pause your Kayo subscription if you’re heading overseas and seamlessly resume it when you return.
With a user base of nearly 3 million Australians, PlayStation 4 and its successor the PlayStation 5 are hugely popular devices not just for games, but also for streaming video. Kayo is well aware of that, and that’s why Kayo is now supported on both PS4 and PS5.
The versatile Apple TV is one of Kayo’s best-supported devices, and accessing Kayo on it is as easy as heading to the App Store app on the Apple TV itself. If you then move over to the “Apps” tab, you’ll see a list of the top free apps. Find the green Kayo logo in that list, click on it, and select “INSTALL”. You then just need to run the app from the Apple TV’s main menu and follow the on-screen instructions to get started.
You can have as many compatible devices as you like set up to access your Kayo account, but the amount of them that can access Kayo at the same time depends on which Kayo plan you’re on. For Basic plan users, up to 2 devices can stream at one time.
The Kayo app for Samsung smart TVs works on all smart Samsung models released in 2017 and later. You can find it by pressing the Smart Hub button on your TV remote, then heading to the Samsung Apps tab. Find the green Kayo app icon and select Download Now. The Kayo app will then be added to your Smart Hub menu.
While the Main Event channel doesn’t always appear on Kayo, you can now order and stream events from the channel as they happen and watch them directly on Kayo. You don’t need to have a current Kayo subscription to watch. You can see what’s coming up and buy access to the events you want at Kayo Sports’ website.
No – as a streaming service, Kayo doesn’t offer a recording feature at all. But it doesn’t need to, since all sports streamed by Kayo can be watched live, on delay “as live” or watched any time after the event has finished, complete with extra features for many sporting codes. On-demand replays are generally available for several weeks after the event, though how long depends on the particular sport.
Unfortunately, Xbox One does not support Kayo. But Kayo Sports can be streamed on Xbox One through the Edge browser. For Fetch TV it’s unlikely there’ll ever be a Kayo app.
There’s no Kayo app for LG smart TVs just yet, though it’s possible there will be in the future. In the meantime, the best option for LG owners would be a dedicated streaming device that supports Kayo, the Apple TV 4 or Google’s Chromecast.
Because it’s designed to be used as a service focused on sporting codes and events rather than a TV schedule, Kayo doesn’t have a regular TV guide even though it offers some live channels. Instead, there’s a “Fixtures” menu which lays out what games are on when, code-by-code, making it easy to jump straight to what you want to watch.
If you’re done with Kayo and want to cancel, head onto the Kayo web site and make sure you’re signed in. Click the menu icon at the top right, then click on “My Account”. Scroll to the bottom of that menu and click “Cancel Subscription,” then follow the prompts.
Kayo Sports is the most extensive sports-only streaming service in Australia. However, Foxtel has the same Fox Sports programming available as add-ons to other Foxtel subscriptions, or as part of the Foxtel HD bundle. All the Foxtel options are significantly more expensive than what Kayo has to offer.
Another player in the market is Stan Sport, which offers a more limited selection of sports including rugby union, French Open and Wimbledon tennis, and European championship football. This service is available as a $10 add-on for the Stan streaming app.
Getting a Kayo Sports subscription is super easy. Visit the Kayo Sports website and click the subscription button on the home page. Then select the package you want to try out and follow the steps required to register an account and submit your credit card details.
Kay Sports streams in HD (high definition) video, which requires a connection of at least 7.5 Mbps. At lower bandwidth Kayo will stream at SD (standard definition) video. Currently, Foxtel is the only sports streaming Fox Sports content in 4k resolution video.
Kayo Sports may not be the first sports streaming service to make an appearance in Australia, but it is the first to customise its service around the sports viewing experience. The user interface draws on advances made by Netflix, customising the flow of programming according to your viewing history and preferences. Many of the app’s features are designed specifically with sports viewers in mind, such as the SplitView streaming option, ability to disable spoilers and integrated stats.
To sign up for Kayo Sports you need three things:
1. a valid email address
2. a password
3. a credit card or other valid payment method.
If you have all the above, you can head over to Kayo and sign up.
Once you have signed up, you can load the Kayo app or visit the Kayo website and submit your username and password to access Kayo’s content. If you hit your subscription limit for simultaneous streams you will be blocked from viewing live streams on additional devices and may encounter issues logging in to your account.
If you’re the owner of a Samsung smart TV made in 2017 or later, then Kayo is ready to go – just head for the Samsung app store and download the latest version of the Kayo app and you’ll be up and running in no time. HiSense smart TVs made from 2019 onwards also directly support Kayo – the app should be pre-installed in the app carousel, but if not, head into the TV’s settings and check for a firmware update. Sony Bravia TVs that run the Android TV system – most models released in 2016 and later – are ready for Kayo too; just head to the Google Play app store to download the app and get started. Split View is only available on newer (2019) Bravia models. This Android TV app can also be used on other brands of TV that use Android TV 7.0 or later, including selected models by Panasonic.
