So it's welcome to the new season of AFL football - 139 days after the finish of the old.

And tonight's three-cornered NAB Cup opener - between Hawthorn, North Melbourne and Richmond - will give fans a taste of the season ahead, heralding as it does the start of the league's new, all singin'-all dancin' multimedia extravaganza.

In 2012, fans will be able to watch footy on iPhones, iPads, other assorted tablets and devices - anything with a screen, really - free-to-air TV, Fox Footy and via the services of both Telstra and, Federal Court ruling pending, Optus.

Never before has there been such a smorgasbord of watching options for the AFL follower.

Front and centre on this groaning trestle table is the subscription TV network, Foxtel, which will show every game live this season and tonight launches its 24-hour non-stop footy wall-of-sound, Fox Footy, headlined by you-know-who.

For the first time, the pre-season competition will not be shown on free-to-air TV.

Last year, the round-robin comp was shared between Fox Sports, Seven, Ten and OneHD. And it wasn't so long ago - before the competition became debased with some teams going hell-for-leather, and others just going through the motions - that the pre-season contest was very much part of prime-time fare on Channels Nine and Ten and, before that, Seven.

It's a competition that has always excited a disproportionate amount of interest because those summer months of discussing your club's new trades, likely prospects and finals chances are put to the test. The pontificating is over, the playing begins.

So the decision to show matches exclusively on Fox has rankled with many, having only been hit with the realisation this week that if they if they flick on Seven tonight, they'll get not just Better Homes and Gardens but, at 9pm, Forrest Gump.

In responding to a story on BPL yesterday, a reader - Mathildaholland - gave vent to her frustration, writing:

TOTALLY DISGUSTED WE DON'T GET TO SEE THE NAB CUP ON FREE TO AIR TV. AND I'D HATE TO WANT TO BECOME A MEMBER OF CLUBS BECAUSE I JUST SPENT HOURS TRYING TO FIND HOW TO DO THAT ON THE NET, ALL I GET IS USELESS INFORMATION AND THINGS FOR SALE. STUFF AFL AND BLOODY FOXTELL (sic).

Wow, that was a vent and a half. All in capitals, too.

Of course, the 35 or 36% of Australian homes that do have Foxtel will be absolutely delighted at the prospect of sitting down and feasting on the premiere of the new season. And of course Foxtel will do its usual professional, insightful and entertaining job in broadcasting the action.

It's just a shame that so few people will see it.

But if the English Premier League experience is anything to go by, I guess Mathilda and the rest of us will have to get used to the increasing influence of pay TV in our lives.

It was 20 years ago this year that BSkyB, a fledgling pay-TV outfit in the UK, forked out £302 million for an exclusive five-year deal to broadcast the English Premier League.

Despite nearly sending Sky TV's owner, News Corporation, to the wall, the deal helped elevate the business from a marginal concern to a media colossus. Premier League football has become the foundation of Sky's success, prompting owner Rupert Murdoch to declare that sport was the "battering ram" for pay-television, because it broke down so many barriers to subscription.

So, footy fans, welcome to the future. The one that involves a set-top box beside your telly.