Ovo Mobile locks in Badminton broadcasting rights deal
Ovo Mobile has secured a four-year global broadcasting rights deal with Badminton Australia.
Under the new agreement, Ovo will broadcast all national, international, youth and Masters events run by Badminton Australia both locally and internationally. Ovo’s deal covers all distribution channels including free-to-air, pay TV, live event streaming, and all digital and mobile channels.
All content is available free-to-stream on Ovo Play
Ovo doesn’t currently have any plans to broadcast on free-to-air, but it has secured the rights.
Ovo will introduce subscription and pay-per-view on top of the free-to-air offering, to maximise international opportunities.
Badminton Australia CEO, Derek O’Leary, said there is an international audience for the events. According to a release, Badminton is said to attract more than 100,000 Australian players a year.
“As a sport, we have taken a digital-first approach to broadcasting our major events and making them internationally available. The Ovo Play platform has proven it can attract international audiences to Australian events, and help create opportunities for sports and athletes both here and overseas,” O’Leary said.
Ovo CEO Matt Jones added: “Badminton is played competitively by an international community of people that is nearly nine times the population of Australia. Add to that fans of the sport, and we are talking about a massive audience that is hungry for unique, quality content.”
“There is a huge audience for badminton in Australia, particularly among local participants and people who are fans of the Asian and other international leagues. I can’t think of a better opportunity for us to escalate the growth of our local and international audience base for free-to-air content, and introduce quality subscription and pay-per-view offerings as well.”
Ovo also recently signed a deal to stream games from the ACT club rugby competition.
