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Optus plan to lure English Premier League fans

There are 1.7m EPL fans in Australia, and 96% of them own a mobile phone.

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Optus recently launched a homepage for its upcoming English Premier League coverage, which begins in August.

It allows EPL fans to register and hear first about plans, in a major move to position itself with exclusive content.

It remains to be seen whether it will pay off in luring new subscribers.

According to Roy Morgan Research there are 1.7m EPL fans in Australia, and 96% of them (aged 14+) own a mobile phone, 77% have fixed broadband in their homes.

Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan Research, recently said, “Buying the exclusive rights to broadcast the English Premier League was a big move for Optus. Nearly five million Australians think that all telecommunications companies are the same. This widely held attitude reflects that—regardless of things like price, network coverage, data allowances, customer service and bundling options—the fundamental services they provide are basically the same no matter which you sign up with. We don’t love internet connections and 4G networks—we love the content it delivers.

“Optus now owns something that many Australians want, and will need to be intelligent about providing it in a way that feeds new customers, and revenue, back to its core services for the long term. The success of this Australian-first model depends on month-by-month, consumer-focused impact analysis in the lead up to and throughout the next season, and then beyond over the life of the three-year deal.”

Meanwhile the Australian Financial Review reports Optus has had discussions with Foxtel to screen the EPL to put together a package for pubs and clubs, but talks have not progressed since December.

16 Responses

  1. My bet is that Optus will do a deal with Foxtel for some of the games and the rest will be on Fetch Tv. They also have the option of doing a deal with FTA tv is they want although i would assume it will be one maybe two games on FTA if at all. I agree that watching it on a small screan is poor but most tvs now have a HDMI cable and you can connect your PC to that. As far as the data usage goes, well thats part of the internet nowadays if you want to watch Live streaming you will have to pay up for the data. Optus could if they wanted to set up there own Pay tv company like they used to have in the 90s before signing a content sharing agreement in 2000 with News Limited, however thats probably the most unlikely of scenarios.

  2. Does Foxtel have any third party channels – i.e. channels you can watch on Foxtel but you subcribe to via the channel directly rather than through Foxtel.

    This is how BT (and others) have operated on Sky in the UK – they’re available to viewers with a Sky box but you subscribe to BT directly, not Sky.

    1. Foxtel have driven most of them out of business then filled the vacancy with their own clone. beIN (formerly Setana) and World Movies (also in movies Package) are two channels you can subscribe to independently.

      beIN is a soccer channel and many sports bars subscribe to it for Scottish and Italian football so it would be the most logical choice if they wanted to go down that path.

      1. Thanks. I’d be very surprised if Optus’s business plan didn’t include distributing their content via more traditional means – it’s not in their interests to dismiss Foxtel’s subscribers base.

      1. beIN Sports is available three ways. Either directly, using a mobile device (online), via Foxtel, or Fetch TV.

        As far as I can tell clubs/pubs can access beIN Sport directly. They also offer commentary programs.

        So, in the future I can see people accessing EPL using a beIN Sport/Optus/Fetch TV combo.

  3. Optus has announced 1000 job cuts as they become a reseller of the NBN and content.

    It hasn’t been announced if Foxtel will air the review shows. Would they even want to having lost the games? Optus was negotiating with Foxtel before they signed new deal with Fetch TV, which could be how they intend to supply pubs and clubs.

    If viewers can’t watch games on their TVs whenever they want numbers will plunge and it could backfire on Optus.

  4. They will also show it via their website as does Bein Sports if you have TV account so we can watch it streamed to our TV, Foxtel will also show the highlights shows;of course your local pub & club will have the games live via Foxtel

  5. Optus will have to do some kind of deal with Fox, can’t see people wanting to watch on phones/tablets soon people will get sick of having so many streaming accounts.

    1. They won’t have to. They could do an app for Apple TV, PlayStation Xbox etc. They could do a fetch tv channel. Plenty of options for them.

  6. I will not watch it on my phone never I have a 55 inch tv if I can’t watch it on my big screen tv I won’t bother .optus are.kidding themselves if they think a mobile.device will suffice.

  7. I want to watch the EPL in HD on my big screen. Not on a phone or tablet. Give the people what they want Optus. Not enough people have the data speed to stream in HD

  8. Yeah, I’m not paying $1000+ to cancel my current contract so I can join Optis and watch games on my phone which burns out all my data.

    Optus have just pushed EPL fans to use other services.

    As ever, make it available, quickly, cheaply, without massive barriers of entry, and people will watch.

    Make it hard, and they’ll take the easy option. I don’t think people are worried about Optus and EPL losing money…

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