Optus confirms UEFA soccer coverage for the next three years
Optus has formally announced its deal with the Union of European Football Associations which will see it hold the Australian rights to the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Super Cup for the next three years.
The deal became public last month, and forms part of Optus’ strategy to entice subscribers with premium European soccer content which has seen the telco pick up market share in the fiercely contested mobile phone market.
Earlier this year Optus renewed its agreement with the English Premier League which will see it continue to stream the competition until 2022, the same year its World Cup deal with SBS expires.
The company has struggled with its sport streaming services that saw technical problems forcing the telco to ceding its FIFA World Cup right back to SBS and issue a public apology.
As part of its mea culpa over the World Cup problems earlier this year, the telco will continue to provide Optus Sport at no cost until August 31.
Under the new deal, Optus Sport will show every match live starting with the play-offs this August, followed by all group stage matches live, starting in September 2018 and continuing through until the final in 2019.
Optus Managing Director Marketing and Product Ben White said in the announcement: “This is an incredibly exciting time for Optus as we continue to build upon our strategy of delivering elite international football and exclusive content for customers.
“Adding these tournaments and elite football matches to Optus Sport provides our customers with more than double the live premium football content compared to this time last year.”
UEFA Director of Marketing Guy-Laurent Epstein added: “We are excited to partner with Optus in the territory of Australia.
“Optus has proven its dedication to football in recent years, acquiring a considerable portfolio of premium footballing content.
“We look forward to seeing the way in which Optus builds the UEFA club competition brands in the territory and makes the competitions available for fans in Australia.”
Over the next 12 months, Optus Sport will show every match of the Premier League season, every match of the UEFA Champions League, the new UEFA Nations League, every match of the UEFA Europa League, the first ever Nations League finals tournament and every match of the 2019 Women’s World Cup.
“We have a clear vision for Optus Sport and our newly acquired rights highlight our confidence in our platforms as well as our production and approach,” Mr White said.
“We are fully committed to our long-term strategy of delivering must-have exclusive content for customers and will continue to build our credentials of delivering an excellent viewing experience for customers across the Optus Sport platforms.”
I find Optus very handy. I can watch on the phone at silly o’clock, whilst my wife snoozes next to me. Or, I can cast to the TV from my phone – that is my method. It is a pain in the 4653 when it goes down, however I will hand it to them that to transition to a far more portable format that cable, there will be some coughs and splutters. (I can remember watching football via Sky in Europe and in a rain storm the satellite image was affected….).
Foxtel, imho is a monopoly and once that gets broken up, we are all better for it. I will love to read an article on the future of sports broadcasting. Surely the EPL could make more money by allowing anyone to publish, for a fee and the accumulative revenues would be far higher than what they receive from one (Optus?) YouTube would be my preference. I know others would prefer Amazon and others probably Facebook, as an example… It would be an interesting read. Be an interesting survey to knock out also to gather the intel. How will I be watching the EPL in 5 years time? (Direct from my club perhaps…?)
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European Union Football Association?
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This typo is symbolic of the Australian media’s eagerness to jump on the angle of “Optus screwed up the WC and has won rights to more soccer”.
Anyone who knows how to pronounce “Leicester City” or “James Rodriguez” knows that Optus has been adequately streaming the soccer for years now and that this deal actually provides unprecedented coverage of the Champions League that’s probably unmatched anywhere else in the world.
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We’ve fixed the headline, Typo.
I am happy as long as there are no streaming issue as i wont be happy if there are streaming issues .no need for Foxtel anymore i only watch soccer. the European kind its all on optus . I have loved their world cup EPL coverage on fetch the on demand stuff is brilliant .
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football*
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More streaming matches that I won’t be able to watch.
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