Optus Sport

Television Subscription and International
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FIFA Club World Cup

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Liverpool FC will be chasing its first ever FIFA Club World Cup title this December, and Optus Sport will be the only place to watch the 11-day tournament exclusively live.

Consistent with its approach of acquiring the most prominent international tournaments and extending its FIFA relationship after the extremely successful coverage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup earlier this year, Optus has secured the Australian rights to the FIFA Club World Cup for 2019 and 2020.

The FIFA Club World Cup is an international club football tournament between the winners of the six continental confederations, as well as the host nation’s league champions. For the next two years, the tournament will be hosted by Qatar.

“We are extremely pleased to add this tournament to our football schedule and we’re confident our 700,000 plus Optus Sport active subscribers will enjoy the format,” Optus’ Director of Sport, Richard Bayliss, said.

“Broadcasting Liverpool’s sixth Champions League triumph was a massive moment for Optus Sport, and it will be a privilege for us to show the Reds’ attempt to overcome the best of South America, Asia, North America and Africa. Brazil’s Flamengo had a stunning Copa Libertadores win in November, so they too will enter the World Cup in ominous form.

“These new rights show our commitment to showing Australians the best clubs from around the world on Optus Sport.”

Real Madrid are the current FIFA Club World Cup champions and are the most successful club in the tournament’s history with four titles, while this year’s UEFA Champion Liverpool will appear at its second FIFA Club World Cup, after losing the final in 2005.

Optus Sport will provide every match exclusively live, on-demand, as a mini-match as well as creating various highlight packages across the tournament. The all new in-house, live 90-minute football show, Scores on Sunday, hosted on rotation by Mel McLaughlin, Richard Bayliss and Niav Owens and featuring some of Australia’s best pundits including Heather Garriock, Mark Schwarzer, John Aloisi and Alicia Ferguson will also provide analysis and opinion on the tournament.

The FIFA Club World Cup joins a slate of premium football content on Optus Sport scheduled for the next 12 months, including exclusively live coverage of every Premier League, UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League match, in addition to the recently acquired rights to the Barclays FA Women’s Super League. This will be followed by the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament, which will see Optus Sport show all 51 matches live.

ABOUT FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP 2019

The FIFA Club World Cup commences on December 12 in Qatar, with the champion to be crowned on December 22.
Teams competing in the upcoming tournament:
Host country – Al-Sadd Sports Club
Europe – Liverpool
Africa – Esperance Sportive de Tunis
Asia – Al Hilal FC
North, Central America and Caribbean – Monterrey
Oceania – Hienghene Sport
South America – CR Flamengo

PREVIOUS WINNERS
2018: Real Madrid
2017: Real Madrid
2016: Real Madrid
2015: Barcelona
2014: Real Madrid
2013: Bayern Munich
2012: Corinthians
2011: Barcelona
2010: Inter Milan
2009: Barcelona
2008: Manchester United
2007: AC Milan
2006: Sport Club Internacional
2005: Sao Paulo
2000: Corinthians

Fox Sports had the Australian rights to FIFA Club World Cup in the past decade.
Optus has also confirmed it will show every match of the Euro 2020 tournament live.

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The Australian reports Optus is on the verge of securing rights for three more European football competitions, believed to be Germany’s Bundesliga, Spain’s La Liga, and Italian Serie A, all three of which currently air on BeIN Sports. If successful, the six Optus Sport channels will be put into good use.

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It could also potentially cast doubts about the future of beIN Sports in Australia seeing the Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A are some of their major properties.

Don’t think it would be the end for them considering they would still have the rights to things like Ligue 1, the English Championship, WTA and MLS (to name a few) but there might not be the need for them to have 3 channels.

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They originally set up in Oceania with the hope of getting the EPL rights the previous time they were on the market. They succeeded in getting New Zealand but missed out on Australia, they missed out on both markets in the most recent round but have partnered with Sky NZ on a football channel that includes A-League content (via Fox) and international club comps.

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BeIN has rights to LaLiga until 2024 and Serie A until 2021. A new deal was signed at the beginning of last season.

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So Optus could be looking for Serie A rights from 2021/2022 season onwards.

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More soccer for Optus Sport.

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Has the J League been on TV here before?

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Good way to fill Optus’ schedule in June and July when European football is on a summer break although the channel is showing Euro 2020 mid year.

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J.League

Optus Sport adds first Asian football rights to 2020 line-up and rounds out full year of football programming as customer numbers jump

Optus Sport has kicked off the new year by securing the exclusive Australian rights to Japan’s J.League competition for three years, effective from the 2020 season.

The top division of Japan’s Professional Football League is one of the most well-regarded national leagues in Asia. This year’s competition commences on February 21 and is the first major Asian football acquisition for Optus Sport.

Optus Sport has also revealed customer numbers continue to grow, announcing 825,000 active subscribing accounts, as the streaming service begins its biggest year ever.

Across other metrics* year-on-year, Optus Sport has had a strong increase in the number of games in its live portfolio, while its customers have also increased overall engagement with more minutes watched, a higher reach across live viewership and an increased reach across Optus Sport social media platforms. Specific highlights include:

  • More than 10 per cent increase in number of games streamed on Optus Sport year-on-year;
  • Greater than 30 per cent increase in minutes watched on Optus Sport year-on-year;
  • Greater than 30 per cent increase in the live viewer reach year-on-year;
  • An 11 per cent increase in the aggregate reach (live plus on demand) of the season’s highest Premier League match (season to date);
  • Southampton v Manchester United has been the most watched match from the 2019/20 Premier League season (to date);
  • Optus Sport daily social reach has increased by 12 per cent year-on-year

After a strong year of growth, acquisition of the J.League now delivers Optus Sport with a year-round content schedule of premium international football and provides live content for customers closer to prime time.

“We’re excited to be announcing the acquisition of the J.League rights as we commence our 2020 campaign, and to really solidify our position as the home of the best football from around the world,” Optus’ Head of TV and Content, Corin Dimopoulos, said.

“We are also pleased to see steady subscriber growth of Optus Sport over the last year. We are particularly proud to be streaming our content to 825,000 active Optus Sport subscribing accounts.

“This year is going to be our biggest year yet; with the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, FA Women’s Super League, J.League and UEFA Euro 2020 all appearing live and on demand on Optus Sport.”

The J.League commences in February and will run through until November, with up to four matches per round made available live and on demand to Optus Sport viewers.

After guiding Yokohama F Marinos to an historic J.League championship last season and becoming the first Australian coach to achieve the feat, Ange Postecoglou will be looking to defend the title this year.

OPENING J.LEAGUE MATCHES LIVE ON OPTUS SPORT
Friday February 21 (all times listed AEDT)
9pm – Shonan Bellmare v Urawa Red Diamonds
Sunday February 23 (all times listed AEDT)
3pm – Shimizu S-Pulse v FC Tokyo
4pm – Sanfrecce Hiroshima v Kashima Antlers
6pm – Vissel Kobe v Yokohama FC

*Source: Optus Sport Tracking Analytics - Internal and Third Party; December 2018-December 2019.

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Yes 10 years ago on Setanta Sports

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Great news for football fans.

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Good old Setanta Sports!
I forgot about them.
I remember when they use to be on Foxtel back in the day.

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took them long enough
really need the chinese league

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I was a bit bummed out when they got bought by BeIN and stopped showing Gaelic football when it became available in the sports pack!

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Does the Chinese Super League provide English commentary?

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Optus Sport has “825,000 active subscribers”, according to a story in The Australian. But I would ask how many of those subscribers actually watch Optus Sport regularly. I have two subscriptions through Optus Fetch and Optus Mobile but I have only watched those channels a handful of times out of curiosity. I’m figuring that I am counted as an ‘active subscriber’ as I have activated Optus Sport on both services.

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Optus Sports officially and formally announces interest to acquire RA (ARU) subscription streaming & internet rights for period 2021 to 2025.

They have signed the NDA that RA has required any interested party to sign to continue on in the negotiations for said rights.

I expect that this will be in the media within the next 24 hours.

Just want to add:

For Optus its not about viewership and demo numbers, it’s about getting customers to buy their productions like Mobile, Wireless Broadband, 5G and NBN based versions first and foremost, anything else like high value advertisers is gravy for them.

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And like every attempt to do this in the last 20 years, it will fail. Customers continually and repeatedly reject attempts by phone companies to provide content to try and lock in customers.

Optus haven’t learned from their own failures either; after initially locking down Optus Sport to contracted customers, they now let anyone subscribe for $15 a month.

Customers want Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, Netflix, and the Internet, not Optus Lock-in Video.

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