Foxtel loses EPL to Optus

[McBain]

http://www.smh.com.au/business/medi...-open-letter-to-epl-fans-20160505-gonpxp.html

Foxtel's new chief executive has penned an open letter to English Premier League fans telling them that Optus rejected a deal that would have allowed the pay TV provider to continue offering live coverage of the sport.

Peter Tonagh wrote the letter following Thursday's announcement confirming Fairfax Media's story last Sunday that Foxtel will carry 24-hour channels from Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea with additional programming from Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham, from July.

Foxtel suffered a backlash from soccer fans after losing the EPL rights to Optus last year and has signed the new deals with six of the competition's biggest teams to broadcast the clubs' own channels as part of its efforts to retain those customers.

Optus is now suffering its own social media backlash after revealing this week that those wanting to watch the EPL in Australia must have a mobile, broadband or mobile broadband service with the telco.

Both companies are battling to win over the EPL's passionate fan base.

Mr Tonagh, who has signalled an aggressive fightback against new competitors such as Netflix and Optus, wrote in the letter to EPL fans: "We know how you feel", saying Foxtel was "as passionate as anyone" about sport.

He continued: "So you can imagine our disappointment when we were unable to retain the rights to the EPL for next year. Rest assured, we competed strongly for these rights and were willing to pay a large amount for them.

Foxtel posted the letter on its Facebook page.

"When we missed out we sought to reach an arrangement with Optus so that we could continue delivering great EPL coverage to all Australian fans. Unfortunately Optus was not open to the deal we proposed."

He then wrote about Foxtel's new clubs channels, which will show games from those six clubs on a delayed basis (for instance, games played overnight Saturday night - 3pm in London - will be available to Foxtel viewers from 1pm AEST on Sundays).

"For EPL fans, there is no substitute for EPL," he wrote.

Dear EPL fans, we know how you feel
News posted 12:30am on Fri May 6, 2016

AT FOXTEL we are very passionate about our sport - as passionate as anyone - and we are deeply committed to bringing the best possible experience to all of our fellow sports fans.

So you can imagine our disappointment when we were unable to retain the rights to the EPL for next year. Rest assured, we competed strongly for these rights and were willing to pay a large amount for them.

When we missed out we sought to reach an arrangement with Optus so that we could continue delivering great EPL coverage to all Australian fans. Unfortunately Optus was not open to the deal we proposed.

Since then we have been working hard on alternative arrangements and we have come up with something that ensures that our customers will have access to more great European football than ever before.

Last month we announced a deal to add three beIN SPORTS channels for our customers. From Saturday, May 14 these new channels will bring our sports subscribers an amazing array of European football including UEFA Euro 2016, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga. And all at no extra cost to our existing residential sports subscribers.

But for EPL fans, there is no substitute for EPL.

So, I am delighted to announce that we have secured rights to three new 24 hour channels from leading clubs Chelsea, Liverpool FC and Manchester United - and three new programming blocks from Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur which will broadcast weekly on FOX SPORTS.

This means that all of our sports subscribers will have access to the games of these six clubs. The games will be available on a delayed basis - a game played during Saturday night at 12am AEST (3pm London) will be available to our viewers from 1pm AEST on Sundays.

Plus these services deliver exclusive access to each of the major clubs including pre-season games, player and management interviews, manager’s press conferences, and extended in-depth pre-match build up and post-match analysis.

These services, along with the three beIN SPORTS channels, will be automatically available to all of our residential sports subscribers at no additional cost - on the TV, on tablets and on smart phones.

At Foxtel we know how much Australians love sport and this exciting new EPL content will give fans an incredible range of programming and games to enjoy.

Peter Tonagh, Foxtel CEO

 

[kithnou]

http://www.smh.com.au/business/medi...-open-letter-to-epl-fans-20160505-gonpxp.html

Foxtel's new chief executive has penned an open letter to English Premier League fans telling them that Optus rejected a deal that would have allowed the pay TV provider to continue offering live coverage of the sport.

Peter Tonagh wrote the letter following Thursday's announcement confirming Fairfax Media's story last Sunday that Foxtel will carry 24-hour channels from Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea with additional programming from Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham, from July.

Foxtel suffered a backlash from soccer fans after losing the EPL rights to Optus last year and has signed the new deals with six of the competition's biggest teams to broadcast the clubs' own channels as part of its efforts to retain those customers.

Optus is now suffering its own social media backlash after revealing this week that those wanting to watch the EPL in Australia must have a mobile, broadband or mobile broadband service with the telco.

Both companies are battling to win over the EPL's passionate fan base.

Mr Tonagh, who has signalled an aggressive fightback against new competitors such as Netflix and Optus, wrote in the letter to EPL fans: "We know how you feel", saying Foxtel was "as passionate as anyone" about sport.

He continued: "So you can imagine our disappointment when we were unable to retain the rights to the EPL for next year. Rest assured, we competed strongly for these rights and were willing to pay a large amount for them.

Foxtel posted the letter on its Facebook page.

"When we missed out we sought to reach an arrangement with Optus so that we could continue delivering great EPL coverage to all Australian fans. Unfortunately Optus was not open to the deal we proposed."

He then wrote about Foxtel's new clubs channels, which will show games from those six clubs on a delayed basis (for instance, games played overnight Saturday night - 3pm in London - will be available to Foxtel viewers from 1pm AEST on Sundays).

"For EPL fans, there is no substitute for EPL," he wrote.

Dear EPL fans, we know how you feel
News posted 12:30am on Fri May 6, 2016

AT FOXTEL we are very passionate about our sport - as passionate as anyone - and we are deeply committed to bringing the best possible experience to all of our fellow sports fans.

So you can imagine our disappointment when we were unable to retain the rights to the EPL for next year. Rest assured, we competed strongly for these rights and were willing to pay a large amount for them.

When we missed out we sought to reach an arrangement with Optus so that we could continue delivering great EPL coverage to all Australian fans. Unfortunately Optus was not open to the deal we proposed.

Since then we have been working hard on alternative arrangements and we have come up with something that ensures that our customers will have access to more great European football than ever before.

Last month we announced a deal to add three beIN SPORTS channels for our customers. From Saturday, May 14 these new channels will bring our sports subscribers an amazing array of European football including UEFA Euro 2016, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga. And all at no extra cost to our existing residential sports subscribers.

But for EPL fans, there is no substitute for EPL.

So, I am delighted to announce that we have secured rights to three new 24 hour channels from leading clubs Chelsea, Liverpool FC and Manchester United - and three new programming blocks from Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur which will broadcast weekly on FOX SPORTS.

This means that all of our sports subscribers will have access to the games of these six clubs. The games will be available on a delayed basis - a game played during Saturday night at 12am AEST (3pm London) will be available to our viewers from 1pm AEST on Sundays.

Plus these services deliver exclusive access to each of the major clubs including pre-season games, player and management interviews, manager’s press conferences, and extended in-depth pre-match build up and post-match analysis.

These services, along with the three beIN SPORTS channels, will be automatically available to all of our residential sports subscribers at no additional cost - on the TV, on tablets and on smart phones.

At Foxtel we know how much Australians love sport and this exciting new EPL content will give fans an incredible range of programming and games to enjoy.

Peter Tonagh, Foxtel CEO

Foxtel should be getting all team's channels the fools.

 

[QLDBlue]

I'll be honest, I'm confused. I was told about this Foxtel deal with the six clubs to take their channels today, but that the others clubs
matches would be shown a day later. I'm not hearing that last bit here, and Foxtel is now advertising their deal with the six, but doesn't
mention it.

My phone and broadband contracts are with Optus, which will be very handy if I do make the switch from Foxtel, but I don't
want to lose the rest of Foxtel sport or BEin Sport which I've been paying for since 2008, and which becomes part of the Foxtel
package in a week or so, saving me $20.

Like Degsy, don't know if I'll be able to get my wife to agree to anything that's going to cost because she's not happy about
the $115 a month we pay now - even though she spends friggin' hours watch Gok, Fashion Police, Selling Houses, etc.

We know a bit more now, but there's a way to go yet. Talking of which, I going to bed, goodnight.

I've seen lots of people saying they're getting some offer of $85 pm for the premium package when they cal in to cancel/complain etc. I've not tried it yet myself, as i'm not in a position just yet for them to call my bluff. But once the season and the Euros is over, I'll be calling in to cancel parts of my Foxtel package and hope they offer some cheap deals, as like you, there's channels the wife just loves and aren't on FetchTV

 

[Feary93]

This is a serious conundrum for us, we have had foxtel for years and my phone and internet are through telstra, not only that but I live in the middle of nowhere so we get crap optus service and only have slow wireless internet that we pay $60 a month for only 8gig so its gonna be tough to stream a game live on the internet as well

 

[Jeff Jones]

I went to an Optus Shop today to get some info that I can't find online - where can I see everything that's on Optus TV?

I want to know what, if anything I'll be losing if I switch from Foxtel. I didn't get a clear answer but I found out enough to help me find out.

What I did learn, and this is only useful to people like me who have accounts with Optus such as phone or broadband, is that I can get
EPL for around $15, maybe less.

I have an account which gives us unlimited landline calls to anywhere in Australia, calls to mobiles within Australia, International calls to 25 countries and internet for a flat $115. All unlimited - stay on the phone and online for as long as you like. I actually get an $8 discount because I have a separate mobile account, so it's $106.99

Now, I can get all that, plus The Optus TV Entertainment package for $120, and the Premier League comes with it for no extra charge.

So, what I'll do is keep Foxtel where it is, switch my $115 plan to the $120 plan and have it installed in the room where 'she who's in charge'
watches her stuff. We can just switch rooms when we're not watching the same thing, which we do already.

If you don't have an Optus account should have a word with them and I'll be surprised if you won't be better off dropping your existing
phone/broadband deals and taking up the $120 deal.

 

[Jeff Jones]

I've just read your post Feary, so it may not work for you. I suppose it depends on how crap your Optus service is.

It might be OK, go and ask them. I don't know what you watch on Foxtel but we watch Lifestyle a lot and I don't think Optus has it, not sure yet.

I'm just wondering whether you could do what we're doing or just drop Foxtel/ Telstra altogether, unless there's something you might have to give up that you don't want to, and go Optus - if the service is good enough. Rambling on a bit there but I hope you know what I mean.

 

[madkiwi]

premierleaguepass.com!!!!!!

I have read somewhere people have a way of viewing the Premier League Pass for NZ as well which I'll look into.

The good news is that when I was in Aus a couple of months back I could watch PLP through VPN. Other streaming sports channels like our SkyGo detected VPN and didn't work.

The bad news is that Coliseum who own PLP and had the rights for EPL here have lost them to Bein, who are asking too much money for anyone here to afford. So premierleaguepass is dead.

Means we can see the ManU, Chelsea, Arsenal and ManC games if you have Sky Sports through the club TV channel, but there will be no legal way to watch the other Everton games.

*insert bad words here*

 

[kithnou]

The good news is that when I was in Aus a couple of months back I could watch PLP through VPN. Other streaming sports channels like our SkyGo detected VPN and didn't work.

The bad news is that Coliseum who own PLP and had the rights for EPL here have lost them to Bein, who are asking too much money for anyone here to afford. So premierleaguepass is dead.

Means we can see the ManU, Chelsea, Arsenal and ManC games if you have Sky Sports through the club TV channel, but there will be no legal way to watch the other Everton games.

*insert bad words here*

I'm reading some solutions in Whirlpool forum. Let's wait until August.

 

[kithnou]

One possible non Optus solution from whirlpool

"You can subscribe to bein sports (Middleast) http://connect.bein.net/en for 20 USD a month (they have even movies channels)

you will need either getlfix account which currently having issues with stream quality due to the fact they dropped good IP's to support it and getting new one.

I am using purevpn and connect to Dubai or Oman servers and its works perfect in pure full HD. You will need to have good internet speeds (10 Mbite min). They charge 10 USD for that on monthly basis or 4.95 on a yearly one.

from there you can either hook your laptop to airplay (Mac) or use windows machine to hook it to TV.

before you do all of that, just visit the website and view the free channels (Bein sports and news channel) hook it up to the tv
that will tell you what quality you will get before you pay anything. VPN will slow your connection little bit so if you are like me on 6 mbit you will have unsmooth streams. I tested on my father 16 mbit and it worked like a charm.

For payment just use virtual credit cards or prepaid ones. I use the one from entropay.com"

 

[degsy]

http://www.smh.com.au/business/medi...-open-letter-to-epl-fans-20160505-gonpxp.html

Foxtel's new chief executive has penned an open letter to English Premier League fans telling them that Optus rejected a deal that would have allowed the pay TV provider to continue offering live coverage of the sport.

Peter Tonagh wrote the letter following Thursday's announcement confirming Fairfax Media's story last Sunday that Foxtel will carry 24-hour channels from Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea with additional programming from Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham, from July.

Foxtel suffered a backlash from soccer fans after losing the EPL rights to Optus last year and has signed the new deals with six of the competition's biggest teams to broadcast the clubs' own channels as part of its efforts to retain those customers.

Optus is now suffering its own social media backlash after revealing this week that those wanting to watch the EPL in Australia must have a mobile, broadband or mobile broadband service with the telco.

Both companies are battling to win over the EPL's passionate fan base.

Mr Tonagh, who has signalled an aggressive fightback against new competitors such as Netflix and Optus, wrote in the letter to EPL fans: "We know how you feel", saying Foxtel was "as passionate as anyone" about sport.

He continued: "So you can imagine our disappointment when we were unable to retain the rights to the EPL for next year. Rest assured, we competed strongly for these rights and were willing to pay a large amount for them.

Foxtel posted the letter on its Facebook page.

"When we missed out we sought to reach an arrangement with Optus so that we could continue delivering great EPL coverage to all Australian fans. Unfortunately Optus was not open to the deal we proposed."

He then wrote about Foxtel's new clubs channels, which will show games from those six clubs on a delayed basis (for instance, games played overnight Saturday night - 3pm in London - will be available to Foxtel viewers from 1pm AEST on Sundays).

"For EPL fans, there is no substitute for EPL," he wrote.

Dear EPL fans, we know how you feel
News posted 12:30am on Fri May 6, 2016

AT FOXTEL we are very passionate about our sport - as passionate as anyone - and we are deeply committed to bringing the best possible experience to all of our fellow sports fans.

So you can imagine our disappointment when we were unable to retain the rights to the EPL for next year. Rest assured, we competed strongly for these rights and were willing to pay a large amount for them.

When we missed out we sought to reach an arrangement with Optus so that we could continue delivering great EPL coverage to all Australian fans. Unfortunately Optus was not open to the deal we proposed.

Since then we have been working hard on alternative arrangements and we have come up with something that ensures that our customers will have access to more great European football than ever before.

Last month we announced a deal to add three beIN SPORTS channels for our customers. From Saturday, May 14 these new channels will bring our sports subscribers an amazing array of European football including UEFA Euro 2016, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga. And all at no extra cost to our existing residential sports subscribers.

But for EPL fans, there is no substitute for EPL.

So, I am delighted to announce that we have secured rights to three new 24 hour channels from leading clubs Chelsea, Liverpool FC and Manchester United - and three new programming blocks from Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur which will broadcast weekly on FOX SPORTS.

This means that all of our sports subscribers will have access to the games of these six clubs. The games will be available on a delayed basis - a game played during Saturday night at 12am AEST (3pm London) will be available to our viewers from 1pm AEST on Sundays.

Plus these services deliver exclusive access to each of the major clubs including pre-season games, player and management interviews, manager’s press conferences, and extended in-depth pre-match build up and post-match analysis.

These services, along with the three beIN SPORTS channels, will be automatically available to all of our residential sports subscribers at no additional cost - on the TV, on tablets and on smart phones.

At Foxtel we know how much Australians love sport and this exciting new EPL content will give fans an incredible range of programming and games to enjoy.

Peter Tonagh, Foxtel CEO

tossers; like I care about Chelsea untd and the rs TV

Cancelled my sky sport after the Norwich game

$85+ Optus bundle of any sort gets EPL thrown in.

will hang on until they drop it

Getting really P'd off with both Foxtel, Optus and others and their outmoded business model wanting to sell you a 'Bundle' - half of which I neither want nor need.

Just let me pay for what I want when I need it

 

[degsy]

One possible non Optus solution from whirlpool

"You can subscribe to bein sports (Middleast) http://connect.bein.net/en for 20 USD a month (they have even movies channels)

you will need either getlfix account which currently having issues with stream quality due to the fact they dropped good IP's to support it and getting new one.

I am using purevpn and connect to Dubai or Oman servers and its works perfect in pure full HD. You will need to have good internet speeds (10 Mbite min). They charge 10 USD for that on monthly basis or 4.95 on a yearly one.

from there you can either hook your laptop to airplay (Mac) or use windows machine to hook it to TV.

before you do all of that, just visit the website and view the free channels (Bein sports and news channel) hook it up to the tv
that will tell you what quality you will get before you pay anything. VPN will slow your connection little bit so if you are like me on 6 mbit you will have unsmooth streams. I tested on my father 16 mbit and it worked like a charm.

For payment just use virtual credit cards or prepaid ones. I use the one from entropay.com"

sounds good, but all a bit beyond this arl techno phobe/bear of little brain

I want to watch when I feel like staying up or record if it's really too late

 

[kithnou]

sounds good, but all a bit beyond this arl techno phobe/bear of little brain

I want to watch when I feel like staying up or record if it's really too late

I'm with you. May have to bite the bullet with Optus if no good streaming is available:

 

[Mogwai]

@kithnou
@cronullasharks
I don't know if you guys ever found a solution for yourselves, but I have been using premierleaguepass for two seasons now and I am not in the correct region.

The first thing you need is a "smartdns" such as unlocator, un block us, or getflix. You can use a vpn and select an exit server in say N.Z but speeds are slower and can be bottle necked at times.

You can sign up with your own credit card with your real billing addrezs, but you need to find a N.Z address and phone number when registering (i chose some physio in Wellington)

The quality is really good (720p) not as good as foxtel HD(1080p), but as good as you will get for an online stream. You can have 4 games playing at once, picture in picture, and a scoreboard. $200 nz dollars for a season plus ~$35 for a smart dns account.

 

[degsy]

I'm with you. May have to bite the bullet with Optus if no good streaming is available:

I may even sack the lot off and follow on dodgy streams if it isn't too late or do much the same the next morning. Just have freeview and netfix as a few times now I've scrolled down the foxtel program guide at various days and times and found nothing to watch

As I keep repeating, Shight on all their old fashioned business model bundles and packages for $100's...Netflix aren't making a loss at $12.99.

end of rant.

 

[Mogwai]

Kodi, cut the cord!