COMMENT
Should Australian sports fans be excited about Optus' new English Premier League deals? Photo: Getty Images
Optus has smashed Foxtel's football monopoly, but how will the fragmentation of broadcast rights play out for Australian sports fans?
Snatching the English Premier League rights away from Foxtel was quite a coup for Optus, but at first glance it was hard to see how the telco could hope to offer similar coverage to the pay TV giant. The pieces of the puzzle are finally coming together as we approach the EPL season kick-off in August.
The crux of the deal is that you need to sign up for some other Optus service in order to watch the English Premier League. This is going to frustrate some fans, although you could ask whether it's any different to being forced to sign up with Foxtel – you've just swapped one monopoly for another.
Optus throws in every EPL match for free if you've signed up for one of its home broadband entertainment bundles which includes a Fetch TV PVR and streaming set-top box. This lets you watch the EPL on your television, although it's streamed over the internet so you're at the mercy of your home broadband speeds (and there's no HD option). It only works over Optus home broadband and you can't sign up for the EPL via a Fetch TV supplied by another telco.
Alternatively Optus mobile customers on the top tier post-paid phone and broadband plans can watch the EPL for free, streamed to their smartphone or tablet. Customers on cheaper mobile plans need to pay $15 per month for the EPL deal. Pre-paid customers have been left out in the cold.
For people who don't want a full-blown Personal Video Recorder and pay TV box like the Fetch TV in order to watch the EPL in their lounge room, Optus is launching the Fetch Mini streaming box in July – similar to the tiny Apple TV or the Roku-powered Telstra TV. It will be available to Optus mobile customers on post-paid plans for $5 per month and will work over any fixed-line broadband service, not just Optus' home broadband.
Crunch the numbers and it seems the cheapest way you can watch EPL on your television this season is to pay $60 per month – $40 for an Optus post-paid mobile plan, $15 for the EPL package and $5 for the Fetch Mini streaming box. The service will offer live access to all 380 matches, with the ability to stream to four of your devices at once.
Alternatively you might pay $90 per month for the My Entertainment home broadband bundle which gets you home broadband with unlimited data, unlimited home phone calls and a Fetch TV box. Optus will knock off $20 per month if you put a post-paid mobile plan on the same bill.
This is actually a price hike when you consider last season Aussies could watch live English Premier League matches on Foxtel or Foxtel Play for a minimum of $50 per month. Of course those Foxtel customers were probably also paying other providers for their home broadband and mobile, so if the EPL's switch to Optus lets them ditch Foxtel then they're probably saving money.
The big question is, were EPL fans paying all that money to Foxtel just to watch one sport? It's the same as asking whether Game of Thrones fans are really paying all that money to Foxtel just to watch one TV show.
If EPL fans are not prepared to throw away all of Foxtel's other sports coverage, such as other soccer leagues and championships as well as the AFL, then their monthly entertainment spend is going to rise. Of course they might be able to offset this by switching to Optus for all the telco needs, which of course is the whole reason why Optus paid so much to snag the EPL rights. The NBN rollout is making it easier to change home broadband providers and will improve the quality of streaming services.
Now that Optus has sent the precedent, what happens when your other favourite sports get snapped up by different telcos?
We already have the situation where your favourite TV shows are spread across Foxtel, Netflix, Presto and Stan (co-owned by Fairfax Media). Now imagine a world where Telstra owns the AFL and NRL, Optus controls every local and international cricket match and Vodafone locks away all motor sport. People have been wishing that someone would break Foxtel's monopoly for a long time, but be careful what you wish for.
Are you paying a monthly subscription just to watch a single sport or TV show? At what point will fragmentation force you to abandon some services or acquire content by less legitimate means?
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