Foxtel CEO writes open letter to EPL fans
New Foxtel CEO Peter Tonagh is taking the personal approach with sports fans.
- Published by David Knox
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New Foxtel CEO Peter Tonagh is taking the personal approach with subscribers, writing an open letter on the Foxtel website to fans of English Premier League.
“At Foxtel we are very passionate about our sport – as passionate as anyone – and we are deeply committed to bringing the best possible experience to all of our fellow sports fans,” he wrote.
“So you can imagine our disappointment when we were unable to retain the rights to the EPL for next year. Rest assured, we competed strongly for these rights and were willing to pay a large amount for them.
“When we missed out we sought to reach an arrangement with Optus so that we could continue delivering great EPL coverage to all Australian fans. Unfortunately Optus was not open to the deal we proposed.
“Since then we have been working hard on alternative arrangements and we have come up with something that ensures that our customers will have access to more great European football than ever before.
“Last month we announced a deal to add three beIN SPORTS channels for our customers. From Saturday, May 14 these new channels will bring our sports subscribers an amazing array of European football including UEFA Euro 2016, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga. And all at no extra cost to our existing residential sports subscribers.
“But for EPL fans, there is no substitute for EPL.”
He goes on to describe the new deal announced earlier today with Chelsea, Liverpool FC, Manchester United, Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur clubs.
Hearing from the new CEO is a good move from Foxtel and subscribers will be keen to hear more thoughts on the IQ3, HD channel fees, pricing & packaging, Presto and more.
It shows EPL fans have been listened to.
“At Foxtel we know how much Australians love sport and this exciting new EPL content will give fans an incredible range of programming and games to enjoy.”
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7 Responses
Fact Foxtel had the right to out bid Optus and refused to take up their option bcause they didn’t want to pay anymore fact all these extra soccer channels they are throwing at us all three not six as reported in the news limited press have always been available to Foxtel yet they never have included them in the past only now it’s amazing when your a monopoly what you can get away with ,now all of a sudden they are throwing everything at the EPL fans including the kitchen sink to try and retain us . EPL fans were never listened to when you had the rights you never gave us pre game shows or after game analysis shows just the live game and that was it not like AFL which has dedicated channels .optus Is including all these EPL pre game shows as part of their live game coverage on their EPL channels .BEIN sport was always a two hundred dollar add on now you lost the rights you are…
I find it hard to believe these were available previously as a fact. The required finding to have those channels, which they now have spare cash due to the EPL rights. And overall, football fans are big winners here, much more entertaining leagues and likely to have the EPL back sooner than later due to Optus not making any return on their investment
Optus paid massive overs for the deal according to most observers so hard to blame Foxtel for not matching it.
Wow, I’m really impressed with the demeanour of this new CEO. He seems really open and honest, which is refreshing.
I don’t even see what Optus are going to do with the EPL.
Exactly – they have paid a huge amount of money to ensure that no-one in Australia watches live EPL, Optus have no actual way of monetising or distributing the EPL games because there’s no way EPL fans are going to change their entire ISP and business relationship with their current telecomunication provider just to see EPL, some devoted hard core EPL fans may drop their Fox subscriptions but will mostly source EPL games online/illegally or via other means that by-pass geoblocking. Optus have overpaid here and I predict that the Optus accountants will have the final say on renewal in a few years time – exclusive rights are worthless if you don’t have a distribution network to recover the massive costs. If the intention was solely to harm Foxtel by trying to eliminate Foxtel subscribers (whom only wanted to watch EPL) then this new deal between the EPL clubs and Foxtel has sidestepped…
That’s very good,now how about writing an open letter and tell us how you are going to fix my IQ3!!