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Optus snatches English Premier League rights from Fox Sports in Australia

Danish

Referee
Messages
31,835
This is the beginning of the end for pay TV, and the start of the ultimate goal of media providers to trick the public into paying twice as much for the same content while thanking them for it.

Kiss goodbye to reliable HD broadcasts as well, and probably even just regular broadcasts for the first half of next season as Optus's servers inevitably crash under the strain and they scramble to get them up to scratch.

Once all sports switch to this subscription model its going to cost a f**kload more per month that foxtel if you enjoy watching anymore than 3-4 competitions. The various subscriptions to watch all the top flight football comps around europe alone will cost $40-50 per month you'd think ($10 minimum per comp, plus champions league and probably a separate one to watch world cup and UEFA cup)
 

Lockyer4President!

First Grade
Messages
7,975
This is the beginning of the end for pay TV, and the start of the ultimate goal of media providers to trick the public into paying twice as much for the same content while thanking them for it.

Kiss goodbye to reliable HD broadcasts as well, and probably even just regular broadcasts for the first half of next season as Optus's servers inevitably crash under the strain and they scramble to get them up to scratch.

Once all sports switch to this subscription model its going to cost a f**kload more per month that foxtel if you enjoy watching anymore than 3-4 competitions. The various subscriptions to watch all the top flight football comps around europe alone will cost $40-50 per month you'd think ($10 minimum per comp, plus champions league and probably a separate one to watch world cup and UEFA cup)

Are you un-ironically defending the world's most expensive pay tv monopoly?
 

Lockyer4President!

First Grade
Messages
7,975
Just do the figures. Once we are paying $10 for each competition of each sport that we like to watch its going to cost an absolute bomb to be a sports fan

How many people are paying $100+/mo for Foxtel atm when all they really want is one or two sports league subscriptions and Netflix ($12/mo) and/or Stan ($10/mo)?

The consumer is the big winner when a monopoly is replaced with choice.
 

Danish

Referee
Messages
31,835
How many people are paying $100+/mo for Foxtel atm when all they really want is one or two sports league subscriptions and Netflix ($12/mo) and/or Stan ($10/mo)?

The consumer is the big winner when a monopoly is replaced with choice.


If you are paying $100+ per month for foxtel and all you watch is sport then you are an idiot.

I watch (in order of importance) NRL, NFL, NHL, College football, WTA Tennis, A League, Champions league, MLB, NBA, PGA Golf, and AFL on foxtel at the moment. If I have to subscribe to all of those sports in the future I will be getting killed compared to what I pay now, and all for the privilege of watching it in a less reliable, likely lower res format.

Sure for the insular dickhead who only watches 1-2 sports it will be cheaper, but for a lover of all sports its going to suck

Also, please explain how Optus holding the exclusive broadcast rights gives you more "choice" than Fox Sports. The monopoly on EPL broadcasting in Oz has simply switched from Newcorp to Optus
 
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Lockyer4President!

First Grade
Messages
7,975
If you are paying $100+ per month for foxtel and all you watch is sport then you are an idiot.

I watch (in order of importance) NRL, NFL, NHL, College football, WTA Tennis, A League, Champions league, MLB, NBA, PGA Golf, and AFL on foxtel at the moment. If I have to subscribe to all of those sports in the future I will be getting killed compared to what I pay now, and all for the privilege of watching it in a less reliable, likely lower res format.

Sure for the insular dickhead who only watches 1-2 sports it will be cheaper, but for a lover of all sports its going to suck

Also, please explain how Optus holding the exclusive broadcast rights gives you more "choice" than Fox Sports. The monopoly on EPL broadcasting in Oz has simply switched from Newcorp to Optus

Fighting the good fight mate, not embarrassing yourself at all.

The monopoly isn't over EPL rights, it's over sport in general. Foxtel's monopoly is so bad that at this point if you're a sports addict you need to subscribe to their service or miss out.

The endgame is to just be able to buy a device like an AppleTV or Roku and then subscribe to the channels you want, whether it be a specific sport (like NRL or EPL or NFL) or a channel with the rights to a lot of sports like ESPN or BeIN.

This is why Murdoch shat his pants when the NBN was announced and then had the LNP kill it off. Giving consumers this kind of choice will make Foxtel obsolete, even for a sports addict it'll be cheaper and easier to watch sports.
 

Danish

Referee
Messages
31,835
Fighting the good fight mate, not embarrassing yourself at all.

The monopoly isn't over EPL rights, it's over sport in general. Foxtel's monopoly is so bad that at this point if you're a sports addict you need to subscribe to their service or miss out.

The endgame is to just be able to buy a device like an AppleTV or Roku and then subscribe to the channels you want, whether it be a specific sport (like NRL or EPL or NFL) or a channel with the rights to a lot of sports like ESPN or BeIN.

This is why Murdoch shat his pants when the NBN was announced and then had the LNP kill it off. Giving consumers this kind of choice will make Foxtel obsolete, even for a sports addict it'll be cheaper and easier to watch sports.


Again, just do the maths.

$10 or so per month, per competition. There is simply no way for someone like me to buy individual subscriptions cheaper than I can through the foxsports bundle.

If you actually think that companies like netflix, Google, Apple, BeIN, Optus, or any of the other media companies looking to get in on the action are any more ethical than Newscorp and thus won't make us pay just as much for the same product you are kidding. Sports aren't going to start accepting less money for their broadcast rights, and the companies that buy them aren't going to just give them away out of the goodness of their hearts, so the cost is going to get passed onto the consumer no matter what.

As I said, for those who only watch a few sports they'll potentially end up ahead, but for the rest, not so much. Best we can hope for is that a couple of big players manage to secure the rights to a heap of sports between them meaning we only have to subscribe to a couple packages - and that the combined cost of those subscriptions wind ups less than what Fox does today (with ever increasing rights deals that is probably unlikely)
 

Lockyer4President!

First Grade
Messages
7,975
Again, just do the maths.

$10 or so per month, per competition. There is simply no way for someone like me to buy individual subscriptions cheaper than I can through the foxsports bundle.

If you actually think that companies like netflix, Google, Apple, BeIN, Optus, or any of the other media companies looking to get in on the action are any more ethical than Newscorp and thus won't make us pay just as much for the same product you are kidding. Sports aren't going to start accepting less money for their broadcast rights, and the companies that buy them aren't going to just give them away out of the goodness of their hearts, so the cost is going to get passed onto the consumer no matter what.

As I said, for those who only watch a few sports they'll potentially end up ahead, but for the rest, not so much. Best we can hope for is that a couple of big players manage to secure the rights to a heap of sports between them meaning we only have to subscribe to a couple packages - and that the combined cost of those subscriptions wind ups less than what Fox does today (with ever increasing rights deals that is probably unlikely)

ESPN, BeIN, Fox Sports, etc will still be around, you just won't be forced to pay the Foxtel middleman to get them.
Even if you're paying $200/yr for each channel and then subscribing to Netflix and Stan on top of that you'd still be well ahead over the year.

How often do you hear people say I wish I could just get x & x channels and not pay for the rest? That's all that is going to happen.
 

hellteam

First Grade
Messages
6,529
From a comment on Optus Facebook.

Reply from Optus: "Hi Paul, fans will be able to get access to the EPL across a multitude of platforms. Optus will make the EPL available on TV and new platforms such as mobiles. Stay tuned for more about how fans can access the EPL closer to the start of the 2016 season. Justin"

Another reply from Optus: "Hey Joel, can assure you that you'll be able to get access to the EPL across a multitude of platforms. Optus will make the EPL available on traditional platforms such as TV, and new platforms such as mobiles. Stay tuned, more to say about how fans can access the EPL with Optus closer to the start of the 2016 season"
 
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Mong

Post Whore
Messages
55,681
Have the right app and you can watch many games from most leagues for free as long as you don't want to watch them live, and how many do you get to see live anyhow?

Where does this leave the a league though?
 

saint.nick

Coach
Messages
19,401
All I want is the same accessibility and same quality of coverage that fox sports already offer- all games live, and all games HD whenever possible. If I have to pay more that I probs won't be happy...

But people are panicking because don't know what the f*** is going to happen, all we know is it will be on TV.
 

Haffa

Guest
Messages
15,881
What are they doing with Championship coverage? :lol:

Excited with the change happy to see fox given the shift, lot's of questions remain. BUt you don't pay 50 million for something you have no plans for.
 

Jimbo

Immortal
Messages
40,107
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