Optus Sport’s World Cup programs according to today’s World Cup liftout in the Herald Sun (all times AEST)
From Russia with Love (match days at 9pm) - hosted by Mel McLaughlin with Mark Schwarzer and special guests
Countdown to Kick Off (match days at 9.30pm) - as above
Live match coverage - hosted by Mel McLaughlin and Jules Breach, also featuring Michael Bridges and a list of rotating guests
Added Time: Live (match days at 6am) - a wrap of the day’s action hosted by Jules Breach
Red Square Live (match days at 6.30am) - hosted by Richard Bayliss from Optus World Cup studio in the heart of Moscow
Goal-a-thon - the best goals from the tournament hosted by Michelle Escobar. This show will air at four points: after the group stage, after the round of 16, after the quarter-finals and after the final
Won’t be long before the outrage starts when people realise most games are exclusive to Optus.
Another disaster in Australia’s sports rights as usual. People are sick of paying for all this stuff.
Off topic slightly… when is someone/ some organization going to start dismantling the business model of foxtel so they can no longer afford these rights and things become level again.
When’s the last time a Saturday night (usually worse than Thursdays, Zzzz 
) was this big with live sport on FTA?
World Cup with Socceroos, cricket with Aussies and AFL, plus more AFL and NRL for people who have Foxtel!
It should also he a very rare occurance, where SBS will be Number 1 and Seven probably Number 3 (when usually every Saturday Seven are Number 1 and SBS Number 5) 
Agree - I can understand why they did the deal (getting a weekly Premier League game & reduce costs). However, reckon a 50/50 split (32 games simulcast & 32 exclusive Optus games) would have been much better
ABC only Network without HD sport on Saturday night.
Very unusual indeed.
The UK arrangement for this year’s tournament is about 60/40 split (60% of matches on BBC and 40% on ITV) with the final to air live on both networks.
It’s pretty crap that Optus have all the games. If SBS has to sell some games, I’d prefer it if they sold it to Foxtel instead. Now you have to pay extra to watch every game (and it’s a lot extra if you don’t have an Optus service)
On a side note: it’s also why every sport organisation setting up their own subscription service to watch their games is a bad idea
In the UK all games are live on free-to-air television, split between BBC and ITV.
In the USA games are all live, split between free-to-air on Fox and NBC’s Telemundo (in Spanish) and pay on Fox Sports 1 and NBC’s Universo (in Spanish).
SBS tried to sub-license the 2010 World Cup to Foxtel but they weren’t willing to give anything in return like Optus did by sub-licensing a weekly Premier League game
Also, I think the AFL might push cricket to 3rd in Melbourne (as Hawthorn are playing in a crucial game), but perhaps unfair as Nine’s coding might stretch hours longer?
Also will be interesting to see how soccer rates in Adelaide and Perth.
Ah yes, I forgot about Ten (Rugby), which rated last Saturday. But unfortunately they’ll be crushed, even ABC will easily beat them with their dramas.
Probably worth posting the host broadcaster official opening to the coverage that is used by most broadcasters around the world (I say most because normally both British broadcasters do their own and others may also do likewise, SBS normally uses the FIFA one.
SBS with a great set… shows what can be done. Compare this to the fucking bullshit seven dished up at winter and comm games.
SBS has also compiled a video tribute to Les Murray.
