TV Rights

[Zidane98]

I just hope Foxtel come out hard when they are due again and send Optus on there way.

It's a blind auction so not sure they will. Optus have definitely overpaid massively when you compare to other markets and it's hurting their bottom line. Imagine they'll bid less next time round.

 

[Jatz]

i think it is right. it's definitely down in the uk.

Interesting. I wonder why. Attendances aren't that up enough for that, surely.

 

[Jatz]

I just hope Foxtel come out hard when they are due again and send Optus on there way.

They definitely won't. They got some backlash but not much in the big scheme for them.

Thinking about it logically, these are matches that are on between 10pm - 6am over the weekend. The viewing numbers for the PL were less (far less in some instances) than the A League/AFL/NRL/Super 15 etc.

It's not worth them bidding big money on it.

 

[Fwoy]

Realistically, the landscape can change greatly in the next 2 years. Optus can add more sports (already doing the cricket highlights channel), Fetch TV's beIN Sports contract will most likely have been renewed meaning channels 2 & 3 have become available, NBN rollout has progressed ever so slightly more, codecs have been fine-tuned even more...

Two of the biggest subscription television companies in the US (AT&T/DirecTV & Dish Network) have heavily invested in streaming as a future vision - Sling TV and DirecTV Now. And fwiw, Sling TV streams perfectly on our current internet (for me), as does Fetch/Optus Sport. I'll test DirecTV Now soon, after it launches Thursday.

Sony has created PlayStation Vue, Hulu is creating an online television network to compliment their subscription VOD. Amazon is on the verge of launching it's Prime service in Australia officially, Apple may move into broadcasting soon too...hell, even FOXTEL is looking at ramping up its FOXTEL Play service...

 

[Zidane98]

Streaming will never be the primary method of watching live sport. Australia just doesn't have the infrastructure no matter how much Optus want to push it. Sky / Virgin boxes in the UK are by far the most popular way to watch live sport in the UK despite internet infrastructure being far, far superior to what we have in Australia.

Streaming in the sports market should be targeted at those watching on mobile phones / tablets.

 

[elhadjihenry]

Realistically, the landscape can change greatly in the next 2 years. Optus can add more sports (already doing the cricket highlights channel), Fetch TV's beIN Sports contract will most likely have been renewed meaning channels 2 & 3 have become available, NBN rollout has progressed ever so slightly more, codecs have been fine-tuned even more...

Two of the biggest subscription television companies in the US (AT&T/DirecTV & Dish Network) have heavily invested in streaming as a future vision - Sling TV and DirecTV Now. And fwiw, Sling TV streams perfectly on our current internet (for me), as does Fetch/Optus Sport. I'll test DirecTV Now soon, after it launches Thursday.

Sony has created PlayStation Vue, Hulu is creating an online television network to compliment their subscription VOD. Amazon is on the verge of launching it's Prime service in Australia officially, Apple may move into broadcasting soon too...hell, even FOXTEL is looking at ramping up its FOXTEL Play service...

Yep from the sounds of it Optus are happy with how their EPL service is going and are looking at expanding it to many other sports. With the PL being the backbone of it I can't see them letting it go any time soon so if Foxtel want it back they are going to have to pay up big.

 

[Zidane98]

Yep from the sounds of it Optus are happy with how their EPL service is going and are looking at expanding it to many other sports. With the PL being the backbone of it I can't see them letting it go any time soon so if Foxtel want it back they are going to have to pay up big.

Optus' earnings are down significantly from last year despite new mobile phone customers being significantly up. The fact that they aren't releasing Optus Sport active account figures va new mobile phone plans indicates they know that the EPL has been a failure for them so far.

No chance Optus pay the sane for rights again. They paid 2/3 of what tge French broadcaster did and 1/3 of what the US broadcaster did. They've overpaid massively and it is showing on their bottom line.

 

[Fwoy]

You keep saying never, and keep pointing to England, when (as I said), the US is moving more in the direction of streaming. NBA League Pass, NFL Sunday Ticket, Sling TV, DirecTV Now, PlayStation Vue, NBC Sports (streaming all 380 EPL games - less than half are televised live on cable).

Fetch TV began using the h.265 codec on the latest boxes, dropping the required download speeds massively. HD movies torrents that used to be 4-10gb downloads for 720p-1080p, are now under 2gb. More media is consumed via YouTube and similar sites as days go by.

I can stream 3 different programs simultaneously in my house on 12mbps adsl2. I had both League cup games playing at the same time this morning, with the net being used in another room no problem. The future WILL happen.

 

[Zidane98]

You keep saying never, and keep pointing to England, when (as I said), the US is moving more in the direction of streaming. NBA League Pass, NFL Sunday Ticket, Sling TV, DirecTV Now, PlayStation Vue, NBC Sports (streaming all 380 EPL games - less than half are televised live on cable).

Fetch TV began using the h.265 codec on the latest boxes, dropping the required download speeds massively. HD movies torrents that used to be 4-10gb downloads for 720p-1080p, are now under 2gb. More media is consumed via YouTube and similar sites as days go by.

I can stream 3 different programs simultaneously in my house on 12mbps adsl2. I had both League cup games playing at the same time this morning, with the net being used in another room no problem. The future WILL happen.

80% of Australia don't have a connection as good as yours. If it isn't happening in England it certainly won't happen in Australia. Live sports have been and always will be primarily watched through traditional broadcasts and rif we are completely honest Optus only push streaming because of the low broadcast cost.

 

[elhadjihenry]

Optus' earnings are down significantly from last year despite new mobile phone customers being significantly up. The fact that they aren't releasing Optus Sport active account figures va new mobile phone plans indicates they know that the EPL has been a failure for them so far.

No chance Optus pay the sane for rights again. They paid 2/3 of what tge French broadcaster did and 1/3 of what the US broadcaster did. They've overpaid massively and it is showing on their bottom line.

As usual you are making some pretty massive assumptions without actually knowing what is happening on the inside. They have expanded their sports broadcasting already and are looking into doing it further with the A League and other sports, they don't want to lose the PL rights and if Foxtel want to get them back they won't get it cheap.

As FWOY said the streaming services are going to be the future of a lot of content broadcasting, particularly when the NBN is fully rolled out in Australia which may well have occured by the time this Optus PL deal finishes, I think we need to get used to it.

 

[PP34]

Streaming will never be the primary method of watching live sport. Australia just doesn't have the infrastructure no matter how much Optus want to push it. Sky / Virgin boxes in the UK are by far the most popular way to watch live sport in the UK despite internet infrastructure being far, far superior to what we have in Australia.

Streaming in the sports market should be targeted at those watching on mobile phones / tablets.

There's eventually going to come a time when streaming outperforms TV you'd have to think. I'm no expert but conventional TV watching is only one of several ways to watch things now. They'd have to be working on a way to fix the delay associated with live sport streaming. This could be years but it will come eventually.

I'd much prefer for TV to become far more flexible so we can just pay to watch some sports on a television instead of paying for a whole bunch of crap but that just doesn't seem to be the way things are heading.

Just look at Netflix and all those services and how they're becoming a huge part of the household.

EPL on Foxtel is dead. I can't see it returning. Only a matter of time before Foxtel starts becoming an outdated service.

 

[Brad Goodman]

I can stream 3 different programs simultaneously in my house on 12mbps adsl2. I had both League cup games playing at the same time this morning, with the net being used in another room no problem. The future WILL happen.

I have NBN and can't use Netflix between 7pm and 10pm most nights as the connection is too slow to support it. I'd say the average experience is somewhere in the middle.

 

[Zidane98]

As usual you are making some pretty massive assumptions without actually knowing what is happening on the inside. They have expanded their sports broadcasting already and are looking into doing it further with the A League and other sports, they don't want to lose the PL rights and if Foxtel want to get them back they won't get it cheap.

As FWOY said the streaming services are going to be the future of a lot of content broadcasting, particularly when the NBN is fully rolled out in Australia which may well have occured by the time this Optus PL deal finishes, I think we need to get used to it.

I can tell you right now that the FFA won't accept an Optus customer only model. I am involved with the FFV and we have been told that any new TV deal under the current PL Optus method is unacceptable to the FFA.

If Optus bid for the A League and open up subscriptions to everyone I am all for it. Good luck to them if they do bid for it on that basis.

 

[PP34]

80% of Australia don't have a connection as good as yours. If it isn't happening in England it certainly won't happen in Australia. Live sports have been and always will be primarily watched through traditional broadcasts and rif we are completely honest Optus only push streaming because of the low broadcast cost.

But it's changing. Just look at all the people in this country that watch NBA, NFL and MLB on the internet via subscription based services.

Watching things on demand has become massive. The internet will always shit on TV in that department and that won't change.

People don't want expensive cable TV packages anymore. It makes no sense when you can sign up to a few services instead and have the likes of NBA, US TV shows and Hollywood movies all available to watch whenever you want and where you want.

Optus' model is a piece of shit but streaming is definitely only going to grow unless the likes of Foxtel can lift their game.

 

[Brad Goodman]

It will only become more prevalent, as for most people picture quality isn't a priority compared to price.

 

[Zidane98]

On demand is different to live sport. Streaming is ideal for on demand services IMO.

 

[Jatz]

Optus' earnings are down significantly from last year despite new mobile phone customers being significantly up. The fact that they aren't releasing Optus Sport active account figures va new mobile phone plans indicates they know that the EPL has been a failure for them so far.

No chance Optus pay the sane for rights again. They paid 2/3 of what tge French broadcaster did and 1/3 of what the US broadcaster did. They've overpaid massively and it is showing on their bottom line.

They don't need to. They could halve what they paid the first time around and still win out.

 

[Zidane98]

They don't need to. They could halve what they paid the first time around and still win out.

I reckon Bein wins it next time round and offers a $30 / month subscription on Foxtel / Fetch & bein connect.

 

[Fwoy]

I reckon Bein wins it next time round and offers a $30 / month subscription on Foxtel / Fetch & bein connect.

You would think that would be the perfect solution, except they have so many leagues, none get a good go. The Bundesliga boys are having a whine now that their coverage stinks. UCL coverage has even dropped from every game covered live, to 3 live games a day. Adding EPL to the mix would only make it worse, considering the demand. People would want all prem games live. So what do they do? Add more beIN channels? FOXTEL is at breaking point with transponder space as is and don't want to pay for more space. They rob HD bandwidth from other channels to make sure sport is at its optimum. But at what point do people who pay for HD for non--sports related material say enough is enough? Why should their picture quality be compromised at sports' benefit. They pay just as much.

So the other option is they can roll back the beIN Sports Connect to how it used to be and show more games...that's fine, but it is streaming again, something you and many like you don't want to embrace.

Perhaps beIN Sports could go it alone and set up their own satellite box...fragment the market even more?

 

[Zidane98]

Doubt there's enough satelitte bandwidth for Bein to setup it's own service. They'll run it through Foxtel if they get it next time around in the current guise (3 BeinHD channels) and they'll undoubtedly broadcast on Fetch also.

 

[Fwoy]

Doubt there's enough satelitte bandwidth for Bein to setup it's own service. They'll run it through Foxtel if they get it next time around in the current guise (3 BeinHD channels) and they'll undoubtedly broadcast on Fetch also.

There's enough for Optus to run 10 HD channels. It all comes down to what they are willing to pay. In Foxtel's case, they don't want to pay any more than they already do. And as Optus own the satellites, they have the upper hand in that regard.

 

[Zidane98]

There's enough for Optus to run 10 HD channels. It all comes down to what they are willing to pay. In Foxtel's case, they don't want to pay any more than they already do. And as Optus own the satellites, they have the upper hand in that regard.

So far Foxtel has BEIN 1/2/3 in HD.
Nat Geo HD
Discovery HD
Fox 8 HD
FS1/2/3/4 HD
Fox Footy HD

+movie channels in HD.

That's plenty of satellite bandwidth which they are guaranteed. Shouldn't be too difficult for Foxtel to fit EPL in HD on Bein as they have nothing of note on most of those channels late at night.

 

[Fwoy]

So they shunt the other leagues out of the way? Relegate La Liga, Serie A, EFL & Bundesliga to replays only? What about overseas sports that run overnight like F1, motoGP, Rugby Union, Cricket...just drop their PQ to accommodate EPL? Or go back to red dot and potato quality for all bar the marquee match-ups? How 'bout the guy who IQ'd the late night replay of GoT on Showcase HD coz his programming was full during first run...nah, he can watch it in SD...we'll still charge him full price though...

 

[Zidane98]

So they shunt the other leagues out of the way? Relegate La Liga, Serie A, EFL & Bundesliga to replays only? What about overseas sports that run overnight like F1, motoGP, Rugby Union, Cricket...just drop their PQ to accommodate EPL? Or go back to red dot and potato quality for all bar the marquee match-ups? How 'bout the guy who IQ'd the late night replay of GoT on Showcase HD coz his programming was full during first run...nah, he can watch it in SD...we'll still charge him full price though...

There's plenty of GOT replays all the time so that's not really an issue. F1 takes up one of the 4 HD sports channels. I doubt there will ever be a situation where there is live sport on all FS HD channels simultaneously when PL is on.

More than enough bandwidth to start a 4th Bein HD channel. 3 could be dedicated to EPL for 3pm Saturday games with red button and 1 for everything else. It's doable.

 

[Zidane98]

As for watching in SD and charging full price that's happening all the time with Optus right now judging by the level of complaints on social media / whirlpool forums.