The announcement means Optus remains the Premier League’s exclusive Australian partner to almost the end of the decade and sees the award-winning service extend its coverage of the WSL to 2024, well beyond the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 hosted in Australia.
The historic deal is a win for fans of the beautiful game, with the renewal meaning every Premier League match will be available to watch live and exclusive, on demand replay, and via the highly popular Mini Match edits through Optus Sport.Optus Sport will continue streaming its exclusive coverage of the world’s best football to its one million plus active subscribers.
The new deal comes at an important time for Optus which is now facing fresh competition from streaming rivals Paramount+ and Stan Sport whom have both moved to secure football rights in the past year.
The renewals lock in Optus Sport’s Premier League rights for six years until 2028, and Barclays FA Women’s Super League until after the FIFA Women’s World Cup into 2024.
Confirming the dealOptus CEO, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said:
“We are thrilled to be able to significantly extend our exclusive partnership with Premier League and the FA Women’s Super League and continue to bring the best football coverage to more than a million of our passionate and loyal Optus Sport customers,”
“This is another proof point that we are continuing to deliver unique customer experiences and exceptional value for our Mobile and Home customers, in addition to our industry-leading Living Network, Australia’s fastest 5G, and our newly launched SubHub, a revolutionary subscription aggregation platform,”
Optus’ VP of TV, Content and Product Development, Clive Dickens added:
“In the six years since securing the exclusive Premier League rights, Optus Sport has become the undisputed home of premium European football and has introduced new Australian audiences to the game whilst setting the benchmark on live sports streaming.”
“Optus Sport has more than doubled its subscribers since 2018, engagement is up over 49% year-on-year and we’ve seen nine of our top 10 most watched matches occurring during 2021. This includes the historic EURO 2020 England vs Italy Final, which broke the Australian record for a live sports streaming event, with almost one million households watching the match live, no single streamed Tokyo Olympic event reached this many households.”
Paul Molnar, Chief Media Officer at the Premier League said:
“The Premier League is delighted to extend our partnership with Optus for a further six seasons up to 2027/28. Optus has proven to be an outstanding home for the Premier League in Australia and has helped to grow the fan base of the Premier League and its clubs through market-leading content and impressive innovation. We are looking forward to continuing to work with Optus in the years ahead.”
The announcement culminates a week of wins for Optus Sport, which was named the Gold Winner for Best Social Media Strategy at the global SportsPro OTT Awards – beating international brands like the NBA and Real Madrid – also picking up Silver in the Platform of the Year category.
Optus customers can get Optus Sport at no extra cost as part of almost every Optus mobile, home internet, 5G home and data SIM plan. For customers without a plan, they can subscribe for $14.99 per month or an Annual Pass for $139 for 12 months.
