Football⚽️

Optus Sport secures media rights to Australia and New Zealand’s biggest international football tournament ever - the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™

Optus the only place to watch all 64 matches live!

In what will be a defining tournament in women’s sport in Australia, Optus Sport has been awarded the Australian media rights to the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ - which will be one of the biggest sporting events in Australia since the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™, to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, comprises 32 teams, with the first match kicking off at Auckland’s Eden Park on 20 July 2023, and concluding with the final played at Sydney’s Stadium Australia.

Commenting on the tournament, Optus Chief Executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said, “We are delighted to not only support the most exciting women’s sporting event in the world, hosted right here on our home soil, but also to demonstrate our unwavering commitment to growing women’s sport in this country.”

“This is truly a unique opportunity for Australians to stand behind our world leading Matildas and enjoy every action-packed moment of the tournament.”

Optus Sport will stream all 64 World Cup matches live and produce programming, highlights and other digital content to provide Australians with the most comprehensive coverage ever of a FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Ms Bayer Rosmarin said with interest in women’s football and the Matildas growing significantly in Australia, the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 would be one of the largest and most unifying events since the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

“We are passionate about bringing the Matildas and the other 31 participating teams to as many Australians as possible.”

Optus Vice President TV, Content and Product Development, Clive Dickens, said women’s football is a core element of Optus Sport’s elite football offering, and would result in unprecedented coverage that would draw even more Australian fans to women’s football.

“We have built an unparalleled pedigree in enhancing and supporting women’s football and building unique customer relationships with football fans, from the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 in France to being amongst the first broadcasters of the Barclay’s FA Women’s Super League, to recently securing the exclusive rights to the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 in England.”

“The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 represents a huge opportunity to help drive growth and visibility of women’s football in Australia and deliver football fans the best-ever coverage.

“We are committed to changing the future children see and the importance of promoting women in sport to drive that change. It is a privilege, and an endorsement of our credentials by FIFA, to be awarded the rights to showcase this monumental event,” Mr Dickens said.

Sarai Bareman, Chief Women’s Football Officer, FIFA said, “FIFA is excited to welcome Optus Sport as our official broadcaster of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ for Australia. Optus has shown a strong commitment to broadcasting women’s football and this deal will provide unprecedented coverage in Australia for the tournament, as well as bringing women’s football to more fans and new audiences. We look forward to working with Optus to promote the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 to accelerate the growth of the women’s game in Australia in the lead up to 2023.”

One of Australia’s most capped representative football players and ex-Matilda Heather Garriock said, “The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 is not just a football tournament, it’s one of the world’s biggest events and to host it in Australia and New Zealand is a dream come true. Young boys and girls, mums and dads will get the chance to see their role models – the Matildas – who are amongst the best players in the world.”

Optus will provide further details of its broadcast plans, commentary team and other innovations relating to the tournament closer to the event including plans to co-broadcast key matches on free-to-air television – including all Matildas matches.

Optus Sport customers will be able to access:

  • All 64 games of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ live and on demand
  • Preview and review shows produced and delivered live by Optus Sport
  • All games available for streaming to home TVs or on-the-go on devices through the Optus Sport app.

The Optus Sport team is gearing up for a month-long smorgasbord of exclusive international football including the world’s second biggest football tournament, the UEFA EURO 2020™, which starts on Saturday, June 12 and the Copa América 2021, which begins Monday June 14.

Optus Sport continues to connect passionate football fans with the game they love with more than 880,000 active subscribers.

This will be the second straight Women’s World Cup to be broadcast by Optus Sport after the 2019 edition in France.
The FTA rights in Australia, as well as broadcast rights in NZ, are still up for grabs.

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Yes, they announced just now that up to one game per matchday, including the final, will be sublicensed to a FTA provider, with an announcement to come in the coming months. Already confirmed that all Matildas and Football Ferns matches will be included in this.

Why can’t we have world cup threads?

Let’s reassess it in 17 months when the 2022 World Cup rolls around. Until then, this will suffice.

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But I don’t think they’re on the anti-siphoning list? Why would they do that?

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Optus knows the importance of having this home world cup on FTA. If it’s behind a paywall it will not grow the game as much. If you’re a casual viewer and you are flicking through channels one day you might watch a match, whereas only those who really care will pay to watch it.

The thing with Optus though is that it only has soccer. That doesn’t grow the game because only soccer mad people would subscribe. If it had more sports you might then see someone give soccer a look and watch a game or two… Optus should really go after other sports too

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Yeah yeah yeah that’s why they will sublicense.

Get rid of the paywall then.

Growing the game is all well and good but I don’t understand how Optus benefits from this? What casual viewer is going to subscribe to Optus when
all the good games (Matildas + finals) are on FTA?

Perhaps a better way would be to make all the games free EXCEPT for Matildas’ games. That gives casual viewers plenty of free content to showcase the game.

It must be said that the 2018 World Cup thread was set up only after Australia’s qualification was confirmed.

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Ah, ok.

I would suspect it’d be a FIFA mandate to have certain games covered FTA rather than anything from Optus. They do this with their World Cups all the time (insist on a FTA element), as do the Rugby World Cup.

do you understand how subscription services work?

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  • A-League 2021 Finals Series extended due to COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria.

  • A-League 2021 Grand Final scheduled to be played on Saturday 26 June.

  • A-League 2021 Elimination Finals to be played the weekend of 11/12/13 June, and A-League 2021 Semi Finals on 18 and 19 June.

  • A-League 2021 Semi Finals to be played at AAMI Park in Melbourne (COVID-19 restrictions permitting) and Netstrata Jubilee Stadium in Sydney.

  • All A-League Finals Series matches will be available to the Australian public LIVE & FREE via Kayo Freebies.

Premiers Melbourne City FC and second-placed Sydney FC are certain to host matches in the A-League 2021 Semi Finals, but the jockeying for positions from third to sixth will go down to this weekend’s games.

Once the final positions on the ladder are confirmed, the A-League 2021 Elimination Finals will take place on Friday 11, Saturday 12 and/or Sunday 13 June - the team finishing third will host the side in sixth, while fourth will play fifth.

A week later the A-League 2021 Semi Finals will be on with Melbourne City FC due to host the lowest ranked qualifier on Friday 18 June and Sydney FC also at home against the other qualifier on Saturday 19 June. It is our intent to play the Melbourne City FC-hosted A-League 2021 Semi Final at AAMI Park in Melbourne, however we will confirm the venue nearer the time, pending COVID restrictions in place at the time in Victoria. Sydney FC’s A-League 2021 Semi Final will be hosted at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium.

The season will then climax in with the A-League 2021 Grand Final to be played on Saturday 26 June.

APL hopes to confirm when the Melbourne City FC vs Newcastle Jets game will be played in the next few days, pending further clarification of the status of the lockdown in Victoria.

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Why would they sell all the rights(including FTA) to a subscription service if they want FTA coverage?

It would be stipulated in the contract that they have to on sell it, or (potentially) make free to access via their own platforms. It saves the sport/their rights agency a lot of time and from doing 2x rights deals in the market when they can just leave it to the territory rights holder to do the sorting out for them.

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Exactly. Quite common. Optus Sport will be the ‘host’ broadcaster (not doing world feed, but are the home broadcaster) and they can then on sell, like SBS has done in the past. Optus can make a bit of money as well by selling them.

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4 posts were merged into an existing topic: SBS Sport

Any further broadcast chat to the respective threads please, of which there are many