How Optus Sport’s football obsession turned into streaming gold
The Matildas are the success story of the year, and Optus Sport shared the win via its canny broadcast rights deal.
But as Howard Rees, head of Optus Sport, explained to Mumbrella, there was no soothsaying involved on their part; just a love of soccer, an understanding of the market, and its potential.
The Matildas were the bargain of the decade.
Optus Sport paid an estimated $10.4 million for the broadcast rights to the Women’s World Cup from FIFA. It then on sold the free-to-air rights to Seven for between $4-$5 million.
Both Seven and Optus Sport got amazing deals. FIFA is notoriously tight-fisted when it comes to rights deals, so it’s unlikely they will settle for such paltry amounts in four years’ time.
Except that Optus’s sub-licence fee *drastically* underestimated the interest the coverage would generate ?