Foxtel ups ante on Optus signing content from six EPL clubs including delayed matches
Foxtel has signed agreements to carry the official channels and other content of six of the most popular English Premier League clubs, as the pay-TV provider looks to retain customers thinking of jumping ship to rivals Optus.
The official club channels of Chelsea, Liverpool FC and Manchester United will be added to the sports pack, while programming blocks from Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur will also be shown on Fox Sports channels. Foxtel estimates 75% of Australian based EPL fans support these six teams.
Importantly it also gives the pay-TV provider delayed access of around 13 hours to matches involving all of those clubs in the Premier League and FA Cup, as well as other content including exclusive interviews and analysis shows. It says a match played at 3pm on Saturday (currently midnight Sunday AEST) would be shown at 1pm AEST that day.
The announcement comes less than 48 hours after Optus, which took the exclusive rights to all EPL matches from Fox Sports in a raid at the end of last year, announced its broadcast plans which would see anyone wanting to access EPL games having to sign up to an Optus broadband or mobile plan, and if worth less than $85-per-month pay a $15 monthly levy. That deal has been derided by many non-Optus subscribing fans.
I’m one of those fans that gets up in the middle of the night to watch a team I’ve supported for over 20 years and I’m afraid delayed coverage is of no use. Taking part in the emotional rollercoaster of live games is hard enough from the other side of the world without these added hurdles being put in place.
I have Foxtel because I use it for multiple sports/TV shows but being forced to get Fetch TV purely to watch live football is a step too far (even as an existing Optus customer).
Time to seriously investigate streaming links.
check mate optus?
I know personally speaking when I watch the matches live, I go out to watch with my supporters group.. And when I can’t stay up to all hours to watch on the occasional weekend, I now can watch Arsenal on Foxtel without having to break or sign and new contracts with sub par infrastructure and no HD guarantees.
So now I get to keep the parts of the EPL coverage I care about, get UCL, UEL and countless other leagues via BeIn with HD and no buffering
Never thought I would ever say this… but well played Foxtel
All sports fans should be paying close attention to how this plays out. I’m personally not a soccer/football fan but if they Optus can pull this sort of stunt with the EPL then every other prominent sport could end up in similar situation with individual providers.
Foxtel is an archaic, over priced model, but it at least it had large amount of content. I wouldn’t be prepared to sign up to multiple services at $60+ each a month.
Smart play, not matter how hardcore you are, I reckon a good proportion of EPL fans record and watch on delay, when you factor in when its an 11 hour time difference, Sunday games being on at Sparrows Monday morning etc. It’s not as good as what they’ve already got, but it will make me think twice about buying the optus offering.
Have Optus not looked at what happened with Foxtel and Game of Thrones?
Football being screwed by Optus, biscuits being screwed by Arnotts. How much worse can this year get?
Optus and Foxtel are no different. Foxtel held the consumers at ransom with high charges to watch EPL. There is no other ways but to bow down to Foxtel just to receive the EPL contents. Optus is doing the same but at least I don’t have to subscribe to another set top box to watch EPL. I can switch my phone line provider, get the same phone service and maybe get free EPL contents if my contract falls under certain plan bracket. Even if I don’t, the cost of watching EPL through Optus is still 67% cheaper than what Foxtel offers. No complains on that especially I don’t see any big difference in what Telstra, Vodafone and all other telcos could provide in terms of quality services. Even if I don’t want to subscribe to Optus, I can still watch live EPL every week through SBS now that Optus has given SBS the broadcast rights to one game every round. That’s free-to-air content! I personally think this is good for Australia, at least for now.