Optus revenue down despite customer growth, driven in part by English Premier League
Optus has seen its revenue dip 14%, year-on-year, during the final three months of 2016 despite an increase in mobile customers driven by the telco’s English Premier League (EPL) Offering.
For the quarter ending December 31, 2016, the company reported an earnings before interest and tax of $307m, down from $356 for the same period in 2015.
Optus surprised many in market when it secured the rights to the EPL from Fox Sports for $189m for three years, with the telco announcing later a suite of apps and channels available only to Optus customers that it would stream the matches on.
I’ve seen the numbers. Telstra is the biggest loser in respect to mobile interconnect charges. Optus is scrambling to excuse poor leadership and to gloss over the overinflated EPL payments. In the race to be ‘relevant’ through content, they’re failing to invest in the core – great customer experience and network quality. How long until the next restructure is announced? It’s certainly being discussed.
Beware of bogus data charges from optus, common reports of customers being charged excessively for data they didnt use.
On those figures, Optus gained 140,000 extra customers at a cost of $189m for the rights and an unknown cost of developing platforms etc. The extra 140,000 is likely to be a one-off as anyone who was going to sign up will have by now. I don’t know the math but is $1350 payment to get customers who will probably equate to sales of $3600 over the three year period a good deal?