Australia’s Optus is considering the acquisition of broadcast rights to the A-League to bolster its existing English Premier League (EPL) football offering.
optusyes“We’re looking at it seriously,” Allan Lew, CEO, Optus told Fairfax Media. “If it makes sense and it adds value to what we are providing football fans, at a commercial deal that we feel is fair, then we will see how we can bring it across. But, it’s early days and let’s see what happens.”
Optus is creating a 24-hour football channel to air all 380 EPL matches live during the 2016-2017 season, with up to nine sub channels also providing news and analysis programming. A further football property could boost the popularity of the telco’s new package.
Rival pay-TV operator Fox Sports is the current holder of Australia’s premier football league, having paid A$40 million per season until 2017. Free-to-air (FTA) network SBS also airs a game each round of the A-League.
Fox Sports is reported to be keen to renew the deal, with Network Ten, Channel Seven and now Optus all in the fray to cover the tournament. It would certainly be a hot property: more Australians watch the A-League than the English Premier League on television, recent research from Roy Morgan found.
In 2015, a total of 2.1 million people watched the A-League on TV either regularly or occasionally, almost 50% higher than 2011’s audience of 1.4 million. The Premier League's audience of 1.8 million has remained stable during this period, according to Roy Morgan.
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