Australian pay-tv broadcaster Fox Sports has been dealt another blow today with news Optus has won exclusive Australian rights to the English Premier League for three seasons, commencing in August 2016.
The deal includes live broadcast coverage and digital rights for broadband and mobile for all 380 Premier League games, every season, meaning Fox Sports has been left out in the cold.
It is understood Optus have paid over $60 Million to secure the competition for the next 3 years, a figure close to triple what Fox Sports is currently paying. A spokesperson for Fox Sports today told this website the company was “disappointed” to miss out, but they had “made a strong and realistic bid for the rights to the 2016-2019 period.”
Although broadcast late at night in this country, Premier League had played an important role for Fox Sports helping to keep existing, and attract new subscribers over the summer months, a period that has been increasingly challenging for Fox Sports since the loss of Big Bash Cricket to the Ten Network.
The loss of the Premier League could also be extremely damaging for the domestic A-League with football fans likely to face more subscription decisions.
The EPL deal comes after last weeks announcement that Optus has become the streaming partner for Cricket Australian. The companies Chief Executive Officer Allen Lew told media today,
“This is another significant step in our strategy to become a mobile-led multimedia company.
We are dedicated to delivering the best domestic and international entertainment for our customers. With 930 million followers worldwide, the Premier League is one of the most sought after sports properties for content providers.”
What’s yet to be revealed is how exactly Optus plans to deliver Premier League to Australian Football fans, a spokesperson for Optus told this website today the telco was committed to making the content,
“available to as many fans as possible – but we’re not going in to detail about distribution platforms at this stage.”
While its likely Optus will make all games available via its Fetch TV subscription service, the company may look to recoup some of its financial investment by auctioning off TV rights for select games to traditional broadcasters such as Fox Sports, ESPN or BeIn. Free-To-Air commercial stations could also play a role after becoming increasingly interested in sports rights in recent years. A ‘Game of the Week’ broadcast with an afternoon replay would be an attractive option.
The loss of English Premier League is another blow for Fox Sports, which is currently struggling to put together an NRL deal. At the beginning of 2015, executives at the pay-tv channel were confident of securing simulcast rights for every game of the rugby league competition. The move would have seen the launch of a stand-alone NRL channel, simular to the highly successful AFL Fox Footy service.
However after executives at Nine masterminded a stunning deal that netted exclusive broadcast and digital rights to the best games of the competition including Finals and State of Origin, Fox Sports is now being forced to pay far more than it expected just to regain the Saturday night game.
A spokesperson for Foxtel expressed disappointment regarding the Optus deal to this website today but stated,
“Foxtel is confident that it’s football offering remains compelling. We remain the home of the Hyundai A-League, FA Cup, International Friendlies, FFA Cup, AFC Champions League, Socceroos Friendlies & World Cup Qualifiers, MLS and UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Foxtel and in particular Fox Sports remains the only place you can get a truly comprehensive sports offering.”
Co-Creator and Editor of the TV Blackbox website, Kevin Perry is an experienced media commentator focused on TV Production, Consumer Tech, SVOD & Sports Broadcasting.
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