Optus firms up sports offerings with exclusive Cricket and Barclays Premier League deals

Optus has in the last week announced new deals for distribution of sports content which sees them set up as exclusive partners for distribution of both Cricket and the Barclays Premier League – better known as the English Premier League for three seasons.

The Cricket deal sees Optus secure a three year deal as the Official Mobile Multimedia Partner of Cricket Australia. The deal gives Optus access to hundreds of hours of streaming, on-demand content including the Commonwealth Bank Test Series, VB One-Day International Series, KFC T20 International Series and the KFC Big Bash League.

Eligible Optus customers will benefit from the Cricket Australia deal with customers able to stream games with a free Cricket Australia Live Pass, normally priced at $29.99 a season, with data usage not counted against their data plan.

The Barclay Premier League deal sees Optus win a major coup in streaming rights, taking the rights from current partner Foxtel from August next year. The deal covers live broadcast coverage as well as digital rights for broadband and mobile for all 380 Premier League games, covering the 2016/17 to 2018/19 seasons.

How Optus intends to package the Barclay Premier League content for their customers hasn’t yet been announced.

This is a great move for Optus in broadening their sports access for customers. Allen Lew, Chief Executive Officer at Optus said, ‘This is another significant step in our strategy to become a mobile-led multimedia company’.

More information on the BPL streaming should be made available closer to August next year, but it should bode well for Optus sports fans.