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.
While Optus Sport hasn’t disclosed actual viewing figures for the tournament, Howard Rees, head of Optus Sport, told Mumbrella that subscribers have watched, on average, over 20 hours of tournament coverage each.
“We’ve been delighted to see the country get behind the Matildas during their incredible run in the World Cup, capturing the imagination of football fans across the country,” Rees said.
“The tournament has seen the highest viewing ever to Optus Sport across the last four weeks. We’ve been proud to deliver all 64 matches from this world-class tournament and we have seen massive engagement with our subscribers.
“Wednesday night’s heartbreaking loss for the Matildas against England was another of the most watched Optus Sport matches ever, becoming our fourth highest audience ever, with three matches from across the tournament in our all-time top five.
“We have also seen strong engagement across the breadth of our social and editorial channels as we continue to reach Australians wherever they choose to watch, with over 65 million video views and over 5 million article reads during the tournament.”
Optus shocked football fans across Australia in 2016 when they swooped in and snatched the Premier League football rights from Foxtel for a reported $63 million a year. They have invested heavily in football ever, building an enviable war chest, of which the Women’s World Cup is one significant piece.
“Our team both on and off screen have thoroughly enjoyed being able to showcase this amazing tournament to all Australians,” Rees said.
“We’ve invested in a high quality, diverse panel of hosts and experts to ensure we could provide such an important tournament with the coverage it deserves.”
Rees said that Optus Sport was “privileged to be with the Matildas every step of the way”, but it was also a canny investment in women’s football that yielded outsized results. There was no soothsaying involved on Optus Sport’s part, just an understanding of the market, and its potential.
“We are long standing supporters of women’s football and were confident that our commitment to the FIFA Women’s World Cup would be a success,” Rees said, of being in on the ground floor.
“Watching the reaction to the previous World Cup in France in 2019 and last year’s Euros in England proved interest in the women’s game continues to soar.”
Optus Sport’s streaming of all 64 World Cup matches live leads nicely into the Women’s Super League, which launches in October. Optus has the exclusive broadcast rights to the league, which Rees points out features ten of the Matildas squad playing across various clubs such as Arsenal and Chelsea.
The Premier League, which Optus Sport recently signed to a five year extension deal, kicked off last week, while next year sees the Men’s Euros, and Copa America, North and Central America. Optus’ investment is in football, and the rising success of the Women’s World Cup adds another powerful string to their bow.
John Kelly, the recently-appointed CEO at Southern Cross Austereo, spent three years as chief operating officer at Football Federation. He started the job in 2013, when women’s football couldn’t command the attention, or the fees seen a decade later.
Seeing the massive successful of The Matildas “delighted” Kelly – and he told Mumbrella that he hoped the financial support continues.
“Personally, I was delighted. I mean, I negotiated CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) with the Matildas in a previous life and I felt really sick in terms of what we were offering them because, you know, they’re incredibly talented and committed individuals.
“The reality is the Magic Pudding which funds football is simply not large enough, or, at that point wasn’t large enough.
“So look, for me to see what they’ve been able to achieve. I’ve been calling it for some time.”
Kelly was hesitant as to whether this is a turning point in women’s sports.
“I think they need to make hay while the sun shines,” he noted.
“These things come and go pretty quickly. My only concern for the Matildas is that we lose the impetus of World Cups and we’re back into friendly zones, and they don’t have the same resonance.
“But, Hayley Raso wasn’t a household name three weeks ago; she now is.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Deputy Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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Except that Optus’s sub-licence fee *drastically* underestimated the interest the coverage would generate 😂
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