Will Optus' English Premier League Pricing Deal Put Aussie Sports Fans Offside - Summary Assessment Answers

Summary - Will Optus' English Premier League pricing deal put Aussie sports fans offside?

Article Summary

Optus is coming up as new telephone giant, which has obtained the broadcasting rights. The company has taken away the rights from Foxtel to show the matches of English Premier League. The deal of Optus to show EPL is that people have to register to get their broadband service in order to watch matches. The fans may feel little agitated with the fact that it is not much different from signing up with Foxtel. If people would like to watch EPL on their television, than they have to register for Fetch TV PVR and streaming set-top box. Thought the matches will be streamed all over Internet but it will not provide HD quality and the Internet speed may also become a barrier in all fun.

The company is charging high amount from the people just to show EPL. People have to spend dollars for the Optus Fetch TV and broadband connections. For the people, who are out of business this situation may arise problem, as people have to pay a big amount in monthly subscriptions to different services, so that they can watch their favorite matches and TV shows. The EPL will be shown through Optus, but if people want to see other sports then they have to take monthly subscriptions from other telcos. Thus, the problem is that these companies are snatching large amount of people’s money and not even a one service is enough. Thus, the monopoly of the different telcos should be taken away so that people could enjoy their favorite sports and TV shows with less legitimate means.

Foxtel losing the rights for the English Premier League will not be much affected by this loss, as most of the subscribers of Foxtel are mainly for NRL and AFL. But, the difficulty may arise for the two other owners, and they are News Corp and Telstra. There would be a problem for the stakeholders of the traditional media. Around 37% of the Optus customers are the prepaid owners, who are not eligible for the subscription of the EPL. For watching the matches these customers have to do the long term contract and company is certainly working on. However, the number of prepaid owners for Telstra is nearly same but it has booked 70% more in comparison to Optus. The focus of Optus is on increasing the average revenue per user (ARPU), by getting the contract of 24 months. The Optus stakeholders may gain profit as the company is about to start the new sport channels and creating new products. The current demand for the telecommunication company will increase in the coming period, thus resulting in more profit to the company and the stakeholders. The customer base for the Optus will be increased, thus increasing the profit of the stakeholders.