The English Premier League will "appear on Australian free-to-air television from next season after Optus inked a deal with SBS to broadcast one match a week for the next three seasons," according to Max Mason of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Australian fans will need to become customers of Optus, "which takes up the rights for the first time in August." Unveiling its plans on Thursday, Optus said that "it had also signed an agreement with SBS to broadcast FIFA events," including the 2018 men's World Cup and 2019 women's World Cup. Optus CEO Allen Lew said, "I think one of the most important things that we've announced today is that we've now got the FIFA World Cup." The telco will create a 24/7 dedicated football channel for the EPL "that will be available on Optus TV with Fetch" as well as on Fetch's upcoming puck device (SMH, 3/17). In London, Russell Jackson reported under the World Cup sub-license arrangement, "Optus will show 39 exclusive live matches and simulcast the rest with SBS retaining simultaneous free-to-air rights to other 25." The SBS free-to-air rights for the World Cup will "include one live match per day -- for which SBS will have first pick -- as well as four matches from the round of 16, two quarter-finals, both semi-finals and the final." Lew said that football fans in Australia were now "spoiled for choice" as a result of the company's entry into the market (GUARDIAN, 3/16). In Sydney, Bodey & Adhikari reported SBS Managing Dir Michael Ebeid said that the "deal was a win for football fans and the taxpayer." He said, "There's no doubting we provided value to each other in doing these two deals." SBS has given up broadcast rights to much of the 2018 World Cup "in exchange for an undisclosed cash sum and the one weekly EPL match from Optus." It is believed SBS has "made previous approaches" to Fox Sports to broadcast an element of England’s top football competition and "been rebuffed." It approached Optus "as soon as it heard news of its heist of the EPL rights from incumbent Fox Sports last November." Ebeid said that it consolidated SBS’s commitment to "international football." He would not confirm SBS's "commitment to the domestic football competition, the A-League, though." Ebeid said, "We've still got another year on the A-League and we'll have to look at the rights in due course when they come up" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 3/17).
