Optus Sport

Optus sure are spending up on sports lately.

1 Like

they found a niche sport that will draw them customers, regardless of the issues they have had good on them for re-entering sports broadcasting, I would love to see Optus also look at other sports that will draw for them.

Once browsers like (from Windows perspective) Firefox & Chrome (Chrome might take a while while Google are heavily investing in WebM/Opus encoding technology) and Edge start to roll out HEVC (H.265) codec for video media for HTML5 then Optus can via their CDN multi-cast servers can offer dual stream H.264 and H.265 like they do right now with Fetch service.

1 Like

Here is the article from Monday’s edition of Australian Financial Review: Optus signs deals for UEFA Euros and Nations League
The UEFA World Cup Qualifiers were previously shown on ESPN in Australia. With the loss of those rights ESPN will be left with just English FA Cup.

Optus secures rights to UEFA Champions League, Europa League and UEFA Super Cup

Optus has again demonstrated its commitment to becoming the home of premium football following its acquisition of Australian broadcast and transmission rights to the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Super Cup for the next three years.

The UEFA Champions League is the most prestigious international club competition in the world and Optus Sport will show every match live starting with the play-offs this August, followed by all group stage matches live, starting in September 2018 and continuing through until the final in 2019.

26 teams have already qualified with the remaining six teams still competing to be included in the final draw. The 2018/19 tournament will feature last year’s winner Real Madrid, Premier League winners Manchester City, the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League runners-up Liverpool, La Liga champions Barcelona and Italian Serie A winners Juventus.

Meanwhile, the 2018/19 Europa League will feature a range of top ranked club teams including Chelsea and Arsenal. The competition format will also see teams that finish third in the UCL Group Stage of the UEFA Champions League be given a second chance in the round of 32 in the Europa League.

Plus, Optus Sport will also show live and exclusive the UEFA Super Cup on August 16 (August 17 in Australia) between the winners of last season’s Europa League Atletico Madrid and the winners of the Champions League Real Madrid.

These announcements mean Optus Sport will now offer an enormous range of premium European football, including the live Australian rights to:

• Premier League 2018/19 -2021/22
• FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2019 and other FIFA events
• UEFA Nations League 2018 and 2020
• UEFA Euro 2020
• UEFA Super Cup 2018-2020
• UEFA Champions League 2018/19- 2020/21
• UEFA Nations League Final 2019 and 2021
• UEFA Europa League 2018/19- 2020/21
• European Qualifiers for Euro 2020
• European Qualifiers for 2022 FIFA World Cup
• Selected international friendlies played in Europe by UEFA teams 2018-2022

Optus Managing Director Marketing and Product Ben White said, “This is an incredibly exciting time for Optus as we continue to build upon our strategy of delivering elite international football and exclusive content for customers.

“Adding these tournaments and elite football matches to Optus Sport provides our customers with more than double the live premium football content compared to this time last year.”

UEFA Director of Marketing Guy-Laurent Epstein added, “We are excited to partner with Optus in the territory of Australia.

“Optus has proven its dedication to football in recent years, acquiring a considerable portfolio of premium footballing content.

“We look forward to seeing the way in which Optus builds the UEFA club competition brands in the territory and makes the competitions available for fans in Australia.”

Over the next 12 months the programming slate for Optus Sport now includes every match of the Premier League season, every match of the UEFA Champions League, the new UEFA Nations League, every match of the UEFA Europa League, the first ever Nations League finals tournament and every match of the 2019 Women’s World Cup.

“We have a clear vision for Optus Sport and our newly acquired rights highlight our confidence in our platforms as well as our production and approach,” Mr White said.

“We are fully committed to our long-term strategy of delivering must-have exclusive content for customers and will continue to build our credentials of delivering an excellent viewing experience for customers across the Optus Sport platforms.”

Optus continues to provide Optus Sport to all Australians at no cost until August 31, 2018.

Note: BeIN Sports previously held the Australian rights to these three UEFA tournaments.

I know something was odd when BeIN announced earlier this week that its sports channels were now available on Fetch, it did not mention anything about the UEFA Champions League or the Europa League. It also means SBS will have to deal with Optus in regards to any FTA coverage of Champions League. Will it be included in their content sharing deal which includes the recent FIFA World Cup in Russia, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and the English Premier League?

4 Likes

Optus continues to prove that niche sports is the future of sports broadcasting.

beIN sport has had a bad week all round, they have also lost carriage on several US pay TV platforms and OTT services.

I don’t think one of the most popular international soccer competitions outside of the World Cup can be called a niche sport.

1 Like

I stand by what I say, Soccer in Australia is a niche sport for sports broadcasting, sad but true, the day that Nine or 7 broadcast A-League during PRIME TIME instead of AFL or NRL will be the day (or night) that Soccer truly has become FOOTBALL in Australia.

8 Likes

Unless 7 or 9 picks up the A-League commercial FTA rights, football will never take off in Australia

2 Likes

In Australia and the US soccer is a niche sport. Most def.

4 Likes

Seven had NSL FTA rights with C7 having pay TV rights, but that was a long time ago.

Of course Seven buried NSL after midnight on Saturday mornings but did put heavy promotion on C7 for Optus & AUSTAR subs.

Now with Optus Sport gaining nearly every Euro comp worth having and all in the one place where you don’t need to be linked with a pay TV platform (since its open to all with internet access) that should lift viewership (provided they have CDN capacity^)

^ The current talk is that Optus have added up to 5 CDN distribution providers (one being IBM owned Ustream) to ensure capacity is never exceeded and Fetch have also added more HEVC encoders and also opened up Optus Sport to retail Fetch boxes.


FFA have totally messed up how they do sports broadcasting rights, it does not help that Fox Sports and now Telstra TV are doing nothing to promote FFA and demand that Soccer be a summer sport because Fox Sport can’t find the time to broadcast it while they have NRL and AFL, lets not start with the way that FOx Sport have all but destroyed Rugby Union that is another story.

The fact that most people still call it SOCCER shows just how little FFA have any pull and have wasted now almost 14 years trying to re-brand and be FOOTBALL but can’t get away from its past, a past they have neglected and binned because it does not suite their purpose, its SOCCER in AUSTRALIA and FFA should embrace it and not run away from it.

4 Likes

After a bright start, the FFA’s governance of the sport does leave a lot to be desired.

I hope they don’t rebrand back to soccer, though. I don’t think SFA would be a good acronym :stuck_out_tongue:

Again this just shows how stupid the FFA is in this country, what the name of the National Side? Of yes Socceroos! So soccer is always going to be called soccer while the national team, controlled by the FFA is called this. So again another sporting body which doesn’t know what’s its right hand is doing compared to its left hand.

2 Likes

sweet f …

All, they would have to re-brand ASF and go back to being a winter sport, I believe CBS 10 have a heap of free time on Wednesday (night), & Saturday (afternoon & night) and Sunday (afternoon & twilight), that is 4 games per week on FTA HD, sure it will be hard at 1st but again takes time to build ratings, it will work and put soccer into mainstream again.

1 Like

Not if FIFA has anything to do it. The existing board structure will be dumped on its arse - and it’ll be FIFA running the show for a while - if Australia wants to play in the World Cup, they’ll do as they say and like it.

Which means - it’s football like everywhere else in the world, and amgonst younger generations that I work with every day. The ones that will tell Seven, Nine and Ten to die in a fire and sign up to the likes of Optus Sport.

5 Likes

The Irish have no problem calling it soccer, and neither does the USA and some other countries. The FFA and SBS have for years tried to tell us only Australia called it soccer but that was always a lie.

4 Likes

All they need now is the FA Cup (which to my knowledge ESPN’s rights have ended) and the Championship and Optus Sport will be a “one stop shop” for English soccer!

BeIN Sports still has the rights to English Championship. The new season started yesterday.

2 Likes

Has Optus Sport gone onto retail Fetch boxes yet?

[quote=“FormerInsider, post:144, topic:1545, full:true”]
Has Optus Sport gone onto retail Fetch boxes yet?
[/quote] Mine just received an update Optus Sports 1 - 11 now showing although only Optus Sports 1 is showing programs

2 Likes

okay, so Optus have set up the new encoder (HEVC and AVC for older boxes)and distribution server for retail fetch boxes