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Foxtel confirms new English Premier League channels

Foxtel secures a deal for delayed coverage with 6 EPL teams from July.

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Foxtel has confirmed a deal with six English Premier League clubs to screen delayed coverage to its sports subscribers from July.

The deal will see Chelsea, Liverpool FC and Manchester United broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur will feature in dedicated programming blocks.

Games will be delayed, with games available from 1pm AEST on Sundays, instead of overnight.

Optus recently announced the exclusive Australian rights to the Barclays Premier League for three seasons, but this week fans took to social media to complain about the subscription pricing.

Foxtel’s deal secures all home and away EPL matches from the six teams, but does not include all matches of smaller clubs, including newly crowned champions Leicester City.

There will also be exclusive pre-season games, player and management interviews, manager’s press conferences, and pre-match and post-match analysis.

Chelsea TV, LFCTV and MUTV will be added to the Foxtel Sports pack* at no extra cost, in both high definition* and standard definition.

Peter Tonagh, Foxtel Chief Executive said: “The addition of these dedicated new sports channels is a huge win for English football fans who subscribe to Foxtel. These channels, along with the recently announced beIN Sports channels, will be compulsory viewing for all fans of international football and will also complement the FOX Sports coverage of the local A-League competition.”

“Our new EPL Club partners are global brands in their own right and have large groups of dedicated supporters in Australia making up more than 75 per cent of the English football fan base here. Our customers will now have access to commentary, analysis, insight and behind the scenes action they’ve never seen before.

“We know how much Australians love sport and these new channels, all available in HD, will make Foxtel an even more compelling proposition and cementing us as the new home of European football.”

The channels join the recently announced beIN Sports featuring UEFA EURO, La Liga and South American football.

*HD channels only available to customers with the Sports and HD channel packs.

29 Responses

  1. The headline is misleading it should read these are club run channels Foxtel confirms three EPL club channels is what the headline should read none will show live EPL games not one .the club game shown will be delayed not live .only interested in live games.and why has it taken so long for Foxtel to offer this to customers ,it’s had access to them always ,it’s amazing what a bit of competition does as for OPTUS i think what they are offering is great it’s not just live games of every club it’s also a bunch of soccer shows live from the UK before the games and after the games preview shows and so on,it’s the most comprehensive coverage we have ever seen in this country dedicated EPL channels 24/7 .looking forward to the live games $ 120 per month is not expensive bcause it includes home phone ,land line costs,unlimited internet free data for EPL games and the box and a whole…

    1. And just $15 on top of mobile. Cheap really. Maybe optus are on too something. Perhaps Foxtel are in panic mode. Then again competition is a good thing.

  2. The EPL on Optus, will be like the NBL & Netball. They tried to go to greener pastures (FTA Networks), failed to fire and came back into the Fox Sports family. When the rights are available again, Foxtel will no doubt be successful and all those “I’m leaving”,”Goodbye Foxtel” complainers, will be back tail between the legs.

    1. I have no intention of going back to Foxtel once this EPL season finishes if it dosent have live games I am not going back in can watch all the euro leagues on BEIN sports app for fifteen bucks a month and live EPL on Optus ,that’s all I need ,no live games no Foxtel. we have been ripped off for too long on Foxtel it was always too expensive to have Foxtel EPL games I had to get a whole bunch of channels I didn’t need or want just to watch EPL games and paying well over $120 pm month for the privilege and Foxtel only ever showed the game never any previews shows or after game analysis shows ,I say sionara Foxtel and hello Optus 24 hour dedicated EPL channels every game Live and a whole heap of pre game content shows and after game analysis shows . Bring it on and it’s all live football on Optus .change is good .competition is good .

  3. To TVF
    Channel 7 wanted to show live game on Saturday afternoons but it was the AFL that said no the league wanted 1 game delayed on FTA

      1. Not everyone can afford fox footy and its not necessarily needed if you follow a team where the majority of their games end up on free to air. Its a shame with 9 games airing every week that less that half make it to free to air live.

        1. Well I think next year the 1.45 pm game is exclusive to fox. Is the delay of the game at the moment their to protect local grass roots footy.

    1. The deal was struck so long ago that I can’t remember why 7 viewers copped the delayed game but knowing 7 likes the afl lead in to the 6pm news and the afl has no game scheduled at 3pm ish that could also be why? The new deal starts next year and I’m pretty sure that doesn’t include delayed games. Let’s hope it doesn’t cause its terrible.

      1. Delayed games are still part of the deal. SA and WA each get 6 teams on delay (3 per team). It may well be that next season, we will have more live games then the current deal. If a FTA network picks up the Saturday Afternoon game

  4. Looks like Foxtel’s making more of an effort towards EPL now that Optus has the live rights to it. Does this show the benefits of competition in a pay TV market that’s been a monopoly since its inception?

    1. To answer your Q – not really. There is competition in a general sense (Foxtel v Netflix v Stan v Optus) but any one thing (The Walking Dead, Better Call Saul, live EPL) is usually only available from one distributor in Aus. That’s still a monopoly in practical terms.

      Hence why Optus will be charging an arm and a leg (or just an arm if you’re already buying a leg from them).

    2. Yes it does show competition is good ,Foxtel have had access to these channels all along never offered them to their viewers until now,why becuase now Foxtel has lost the live games rights to Optus . Comptpetion is good .foxtel is now the loser.

  5. It amazes me the number of people online who are whinging about Foxtel showing the EPL matches on delay. Can people not get it through their heads that Optus paid way too much for the rights, and this is shown by the outrageous prices they are charging fans to gain access to live coverage. Foxtel cannot show the matches live, unless Optus are willing to do some side-deal (if they’re even allowed to).

    It would appear Foxtel have cleverly found a way around being locked out of live broadcasts by picking up the team channels instead (for no extra cost to existing sports subscribers) – at least they can show some EPL now – more than most people would be getting if they didn’t. If people want to get stuck into someone about live access, point your criticisms towards Optus!

    I’d equate Optus and the IPL to Woolworths and Masters … sounded like a great idea at the time, but after…

  6. Like the old days where AFL was delayed how do you keep yourself from knowing the score!!! tell its not easy with family and friends spilling the beans

        1. 7 use the AFL as a lead in to the News in Melb, hence the delay. I’m not sure why the AFL haven’t bitten the bullet and simply made that game a 3.20 start to mirror Sunday. As of 2017, 7 wont cover a Sat arvo game but there will be a 3.20 EST time for Foxtel to possibly onsell.

  7. “…huge win for English football fans…”
    Tonagh is using “huge win” differently from everybody else. His electrical goods have been stolen from his house but he was able to get hold of a Sony Walkman and an AM clock radio and everything’s all right again?

  8. A bit of variety wouldn’t hurt, half of the sports channels will be 24/7 soccer channels, and yet they can only show 5% of all MLB games every week (and they advertise this as being awesome) and no Sunday afternoon NFL games.

    1. I agree that Fox Sports and Foxtel are overly focusing on certain fields, and that they really could improve their coverage of other sports, but given that ESPN offer NFL Red Zone I’m not sure it is right to criticise them for not offering Sunday afternoon games given this offers coverage of every Sunday afternoon game.

        1. I realise Fox Sports dropped their coverage of the NFL following 7mate’s acquisition of NFL rights, but my point is that it isn’t really fair to say that Foxtel don’t care about any NFL games except Sunday night, Monday and Thursday when they offer NFL Red Zone which is significantly better than just 2 games on Fox Sports. But in regards to the likes of the MLB, NHL and NBA, Fox Sports have no excuse – they are way behind the eight ball and I hope that once Fox NRL launches next year they will re-assess and purchase more American rights to fill their gaps.

  9. If it’s not live I am not interested seriously as if a delayed coverage of six teams only playing is good enough and the rest of the teams in the EPL don’t have their own to channels so what about them Foxtel and Leicester who won th eEPL they won’t be on either . desperate times Foxtel you lost the rights now watch for EPL fans leaving in droves migrating to Optus .foxtel coverage when they had the EPL was pretty crap anyways there was never any pre game shows or after game shows it was just the game shown .

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