Optus to offer 10 channels of streamed soccer on EPL app

Optus has shown off details of its English Premier League app due for release on July 4.

Optus shows off details of its English Premier League soccer app which launches on July 4, 2016.

Optus has unveiled details of its new English Premier League app which will give fans up to 10 channels of match content simultaneously.

The Optus Sport app will be available for Apple and Android devices from July 4 and also through “Yes TV” via the Fetch TV service. Fetch will carry a new channel Optus Sport 1. The service will also be available via a satellite box and Apple TV.

Overall there are 10 channels for streaming scheduled programming and live action over the ‘net. Fans will be able to record matches as they would with free-to-air content. Streaming quality will be up to 1080p high definition.

Head of TV and Content at Optus Paul Rybicki said the telco had also bought rights to 18 pre-season games with top clubs from the UK, Spain, Italy and France ahead of the EPL which kicks off in August.

This week Optus has been offering the media previews of the new app which it designed after viewing comparable internet sports streaming services overseas.

“We looked at markets where sport is delivered over the internet already — the US in particular with NFL, NBA and baseball. All of those sports are quite ahead of us in terms of delivering content over the internet. We designed this from some of that discovery,” Mr Rybicki said.

Open the app and you’re one click away from live and upcoming streaming matches. There’s a counter for how long until the next game, but alerts are not available yet. Mr Rybicki said Optus was working on adding upcoming match times to a customer’s calendar.

Scroll down from live matches and you’ll see a listing of current match replays.

Chelsea's Gary Cahill celebrates a goal during the EPL.

The main menu has headings for matches, fixtures, tables, results and news. The news is in short-video form with interviews with coaches, animated goals, news about injuries, and snippets from a coach’s media conference.

The 10 channels will carry live streams of games which you can rewind in real time. More channels will be used for matches depending on how many occur simultaneously. In the last round when all games occur simultaneously, all ten channels will be used, Mr Rybicki said.

Goals will be time-marked so that viewers can click on them to watch a replay. There’s a multiscreen option that lets you watch 3-4 games simultaneously, with audio you choose from one of them.

Matches of the current round will be available on demand within a minute of the live game finishing, Mr Rybicki said.

The main channel will also offer a 24-7 stream of soccer related programs: pre-game shows, mid game and postgame shows, highlights and analysis, two half-hour soccer news bulletins per day and magazine-style content like a daily show on a couch with guests. Twice a day fans can take part in a one-hour global “fan engagement show”. They can Skype, text, tweet or email questions.

This content will be streamed on the main channel and available later on demand.

The app is free but Optus customers will need to login once to initiate their access to content. At the very minimum you need to be a postpaid Optus mobile customer paying at least $30 per month. For an extra $5 Optus will send you a Fetch Mini set-top-box which will let you watch matches on the big screen.

You don’t need to be an Optus broadband customer; content will stream over any ISP, he said.

And if you’re not an Optus mobile customer you can get access to the EPL content if you buy a Home Fixed service with a Fetch Mighty set top box.

Customers who qualify will get the EPL for free for the current season if they sign up before the end of July. After that, fans who sign up pay $15 per month for the duration of the EPL season.

In October last year, Optus paid $189 million for the rights to the EPL for three years in what is an expensive gamble as it looks to narrow the gap on Telstra.

Optus also has invested in the FIFA World Cup including Australia playing in the Confederations Cup. FIFA content however is anti-siphoned so some of it also will be shown by SBS.

Optus also has access to Cricket Australia exclusive content which includes Australia playing at home and the Big Bash League.

Mr Rybicki said OzTAM ratings revealed that more than half a million Australian fans watched a soccer game on a weekend during the first rounds of last year. “This will open up the door to many more Premier League fans,” he said.

The EPL service is another example of how a sport’s administration is offering content directly to fans while bypassing traditional newspaper and TV media sources.