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I have become a fan of the English Premier League gradually over the last four to five years. I’ve officially picked a team to follow (Crystal Palace) and like to follow all the news involving the league.
I can attribute the peak in my interest to two things: the EA Sports FIFA series and Foxtel.
This season is the first that I have had Foxtel at my disposal and I have been fully invested in the whole competition. Before now I’d occasionally watch highlights or goal packages, check the table see how things were going but never to the degree of interest with which I have followed the 2015-16 season.
Leicester City’s title triumph, the fight for the European spots and the red hot relegation battle going on. In addition to all of that, there’s the important story of the prolific rise and equally disappointing fall of Alan Pardew’s men.
But my first season with Foxtel, at this stage, is looking like my last with the Australian broadcasting rights being purchased by Optus. While there were some ideas thrown around that they would then charge Foxtel to broadcast the games, it seems whatever negotiations may or may not have been happening behind the scenes have not come to fruition. Optus will be broadcasting the games via online streaming.
The two most common methods are:
1. Via Optus’ FetchTV service, which is a pay-tv service offered with Optus Broadband, the purchase of which would mean you have free access to live games.
2. Streaming via mobile if you have an Optus Mobile post-paid plan. This would incur an additional fee to access live EPL games.
All in all, if you’re not already an Optus customer, it’s going to cost you more than Foxtel does, and you have to purchase an Optus product to get it.
If you’re willing to switch everything to Optus then it might end up being cheaper, which I’m assuming is Optus’ goal, but I can’t see Australians being bothered
I don’t want to get into why this isn’t a particularly clever business model but the main issue is, if people want to stream games (most people know how to do that for free), they’re not going to be making any money from existing Optus customers. A lot of people who have Foxtel will be keeping it for the other channels that are offered (FoxFooty being the favourite in our house).
All in all, the result is that less people will be watching the EPL, there will be a very limited number of people who might be introduced to the EPL (those who are already active FetchTV subscribers) but more than anything a greatly reduced number of people who are currently watching it.
This means that not only the love of the EPL in Australia might fade away to nothing, but it could slow down the rapid rate in which the country is falling in love with football in general.
It might mean a lot of those watching EPL late on a Saturday night, perhaps after the dinner and the washing up is done, might have to swap it for some prime-time A-League action. How likely that is I’m not so sure, but I guess that would be one positive that we can take out of the situation.
And let’s not forget that these games aren’t going to be on at the pub anymore either. This means that those who aren’t as astute a fan as I am, and more often than not catch a reply of the game at an RSL or sports club, would most likely stop watching the game altogether. Those people may have an idea of what’s happening when Manchester United play Liverpool, but would probably have no idea of the existence of clubs like Bayer Leverkusen, Athletic Bilbao or Monaco.
I’m not saying Australians will stop playing football, or that the increase in junior registrations will start to slow. I think it’s pretty obvious that football in Australia is a locomotive with no intention of stopping.
Foxtel is saving face by including beIN Sports for subscribers, which broadcasts top flight games from France, Italy, Spain, Germany as well as European-wide competitions and some South American football leagues, at no extra cost. That will at least keep high-level football on our screens.
But the EPL has been one of Foxtel’s flagship products for a number of years and definitely the most followed by Australians. I can definitely see Australia’s interest in football waning a little due to this. Until the next World Cup that is.
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