TV Ratings: When it comes to EPL, Optus stays in possession of the ball

When it comes to EPL, Optus stays in possession of the ball

Optus is retaining the rights to EPL soccer, and has reported subscriber numbers of more than a million, which makes it a proper contender with fellow streaming service Kayo.

Glenn Dyer

Nov 19, 2021

A very quiet night — Seven beat Nine in total people and the two tied in the main channels, but that’s all there was to talk about.

This morning Optus revealed it had retained the rights to EPL soccer in Australia for six more years until 2028. Optus has held them since 2016. It retained the rights in 2018, shutting out Foxtel. No value, but media reckon $80 million a year. That would be up from the 2016 deal which was rumoured to be $63 million a year.

Optus said Friday it now has more than a million subscribers — which would mean it’s a real competitor to Foxtel’s Kayo, which News Corp said had 1.1 million total paying customers at September 30. Optus Sports will get a big kick from the 2023 women’s football World Cup in Australia and NZ.

Ten was rumoured to want the EPL to go with its A League coverage and for the parent company’s Paramount+ streaming service. But that was probably always a forlorn ambition because the real decision was in the US where Paramount rival NBCU (owned by Comcast) has just nailed down the US rights for eight years at a rumoured US$2.7 billion for the package (which includes the women’s FA competition).

ESPN (Disney) and ViacomCBS (Ten’s parent) had been rivals to NBCU for the rights which it has held since 2013. EPL games will be shown on NBC, USA Network, Peacock (NBC’s streaming service), Telemundo, Universo, and other channels yet to be revealed.

Regional top five: Seven News, 556,000; Seven News 6.30, 527,000; Home And Away, 354,000; Nine News, 340,000; 7pm ABC News, 327,000.

Network channel share: