As more sports migrate to live streaming, getting a "firm idea" of how many people are watching "gets harder and harder," as the A-League is finding out, according to Tom Smithies of the Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH. Viewing figures from Foxtel "made stark reading" after round 3 of the competition, with a total of 221,000 viewers -- down a third on the start of last season. But "complicating the numbers" has been the launch of Football Federation Australia's MyFootball app, which gives Telstra's subscribers free access to all the games. Just like Optus with the Premier League, Telstra is "not about to release" detailed data on who is watching A-League games. The "same goes for anyone watching on Foxtel's own streaming app, or Ten Play." Internally, there is instant data for these companies via the apps, but as industry observers point out, telecoms like Telstra and Optus are "as interested in new subscriber numbers and the churn rate of existing customers as they are in raw viewing figures." In truth, it is "highly unlikely" that the "missing" viewers account for the shortfall (DAILY TELEGRAPH, 11/6).
