Optus has been moving their interest into the realm of value added services of late, picking up rights for streaming the Cricket as well as the English Premier League (EPL) last year. Today Optus has unveiled plans for how customers will be able to stream the EPL, as well as a new cross-license deal with national broadcaster SBS that will see Optus stream all 64 World Cup 2018 matches.
The English Premier League deal, will see Optus offer customers multiple avenues to watch English Premier League matches played during the 2016/17 to 2018/19 seasons. Optus has also struck a deal with SBS which will see a match per round broadcast on free to air Television, as well as giving Optus access to stream the 2018 World Cup, as well as the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
With Optus taking over the broadcast of the EPL from payTV service Foxtel, a lot of pressure is on them to offer a good service to the English Premier League fans. Optus says they’re up for the challenge with a ‘faster, stronger and more resilient networks, capable of delivering an exceptional experience for data-hungry customers who love to stream content’.
Optus say has invested $1 billion annually over the past ten years to improve services for mobile and broadband customers. Optus has been getting good results when it comes to video deliver, with Netflix naming Optus’ fixed broadband network as the best for prime-time streaming over the last six months; and Stan customers also saw the carrier named the fastest streaming experience for the last 5 months.
With a strong mobile and broadband infrstructure, Optus has listed multiple avenues for streaming the EPL action for Optus’ customers which will utilise this strengthened network.
- Australia’s first ever 24/7 football channel dedicated exclusively to the English Premier League, and carried on Optus’ subscription TV platform, Optus TV with Fetch. With up to ten sub-channels, Optus will accommodate every match of every round live, so fans never miss a minute of the action on match day;
- A mini set-top box device which allows mobile customers an entertainment expe
- An Optus EPL App for mobile and tablet devices, giving customers access to Optus’ 24/7 EPL channel with un-metered mobile and fixed broadband streaming of live games. The Optus EPL App will be progressively offered via selected media TV player devices and Smart TVs;
- Optus’ EPL website which will feature live matches for subscribers, as well as news and exclusive content;
- A free-to-air sub-licence which will see one match per round broadcast live on SBS for the next three seasons;
- The Optus satellite broadcast platform for customers who either can’t access Optus’ broadband services, or can’t get High Definition content via their broadband service. The satellite service will also deliver live games via Optus’ EPL channel to commercial premises, including pubs and clubs.
rience on their TV screen, via Optus TV with Fetch. It includes access to 35 premium entertainment channels, and the ability to pause and rewind the action;
The dedicated Optus 24/7 Football channel will see pre and post match shows, with game-day analysis including reports from a pool of the Premier Leagues experts. SHows include interactive Live Shows like Fanzone and a range of news programming and analysis shows such as Matchday Live, Football TOday and Kick Off, all broadcast from the Uk.
Allen Lew, Chief Executive Officer at Optus said of the new setup:
With Optus, football fans are spoiled for choice. As the only telco in Australia to own and operate network infrastructure across all three mobile, fixed and satellite platforms, we are in a unique position to deliver the English Premier League and the 2018 FIFA World Cup, to more Australians, in more ways than ever before.
Broadcast has been a key part of our services since the inception of Optus’ satellite business. We have developed rich expertise in broadcasting and have a long history in delivering high quality live broadcasts via our satellite fleet.
While Optus hasn’t yet announced pricing for any of the streaming, customers interested in streaming or watching the EPL on their TV or mobile device can sign up for updates as they’re announced, on the Optus EPL website.
So the question is… Will we be able to “cast” from the optus EPL app to a Chromecast?
God really hope A League does something for their broadcasting for next season becasue that’ll pretty much be the only thing I’d be watching on Foxtel. And I pretty much go to all of the home games anyway… :/