When Optus snared the Aussie rights to the English Premier League from arch-rival in Foxtel last November it was hailed as a coup for the telco. Albeit it an expensive coup that cost $63 million a year for three years.
However, there was one glaring problem for Optus – it had the rights but not anywhere to broadcast it. It quickly did a deal with SBS and launched Optus TV on Fetch TV. It also pissed off fans who’d signed on to Foxtel in the belief the games would remain there and now had to sign-on to expensive Optus plans and change their telcos.
The coverage too has been slammed by fans who say the action is not live – as Optus claim – but there is a delay of up to a minute by the time Aussie fans get to see it
A delay of a minute doesn’t sound like much, but many EPL fans in Australia are English and Irish who live blog about games with likeminded fans in their home countries.
The Australian is today reporting that one disgruntled Sydney fan has taken Optus to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission complaining that the telco’s claims that games were live were “false and misleading”.
The fan, a Mr David Feeney, told The Oz:“It just kills the enjoyment. My friends celebrate the goal that’s just been scored and I won’t see it on my screen for a whole minute. Sports have to be live, and Optus just doesn’t have the ability to deliver it live as advertised. I have to just sit on my own watching the game with no mates and no social media — you can’t talk to anyone during the game. I’m extremely frustrated.”
Optus has conceded there has been “teething problems” with its EPL rollout.
