Stan will stream the next season of the English Premier League from August, in a landmark rights deal that sees Nine Entertainment take over Australia’s most prestigious football property, but under terms that reveal just how costly the streaming wars have become.
In a highly complex agreement, Optus will effectively subsidise Stan’s acquisition of the EPL rights. Nine, which owns Stan, is expected to pay around $60 million per year for the next three seasons to broadcast the league, according to two people briefed on the arrangement.
Meanwhile, Optus will continue to shell out $40 million annually, despite giving up the rights.
The deal, which insiders say will be finalised within days, will signal the end of Optus Sport, the streaming platform that shocked the market in 2016 when it outbid Foxtel for Premier League rights and rose quickly to prominence.
Stan will become the new home for a stacked football offering that includes the Premier League, the FA Cup, the K League, and the J League. However, the fate of the Women’s Super League, home to Matildas stars Caitlin Foord, Steph Catley, and Hayley Raso, remains unclear after its broadcast deal expired. There’s also no confirmation on whether Stan will pick up the UEFA European Women’s Championship airing in early July.
While the partnership gives Nine a new marquee asset in its growing sports portfolio, which includes the UEFA Champions League, Super Rugby, Wimbledon, and Roland Garros, sources confirmed no staff will move across from Optus Sport. Nine is instead expected to rely on its existing infrastructure and broadcast teams.
Whether it will match Optus’ investment in data-rich matchday coverage, including lineups and advanced stats, remains to be seen. The price of entry will also be higher for fans with Stan Sport’s minimum subscription set at $27. That means a total of 185,000 new subscribers will be required to cover the cost of the Premier League deal alone.
The move also comes as Nine tightens its belt across other parts of the business. Nine CEO Matt Stanton announced more than $100 million in cost cuts in February, amid rising costs and a weakening advertising market. Despite a 2 per cent increase in revenue for the first half of FY25 to $1.4 billion, costs were up 3 per cent, forcing Nine to be increasingly selective in where it invests.
Still, sport remains one of the few surefire ways to reach mass audiences in a fragmented media environment, and Nine has spent hundreds of millions on live rights over recent years. With new NRL broadcast negotiations looming, the Premier League will be a key test of how far those investments can stretch.
Optus, meanwhile, exits a space it once dominated. Since launching Optus Sport in 2016, the telco has spent heavily on global football rights, including Japan’s J League, Spain’s La Liga, the FIFA World Cup (via SBS sublicense), and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The rights helped reduce churn, lifted average revenue per user, and attracted over a million active subscribers at its peak. But those numbers dwindled. In April last year, Optus Sport had just 700,000 subscribers. With international rivals like Amazon and Paramount entering the bidding wars, and local players like Stan and Kayo beefing up offerings, the economics turned grim.
People familiar with Optus’ financials said the EPL rights were burning tens of millions annually. So much so that in 2022, before the new six-year EPL deal kicked in, the company began charging its own telco customers to watch matches. Subscription prices have since climbed to $120 annually for Optus users, and $24.99 monthly for others.
Recent financials reveal a 14 per cent drop in subscription-based broadcast revenue, which includes Optus Sport and SubHub, down to $65 million.
The exit from sports streaming aligns with the parent company Singtel’s strategic refocus on core telecommunications. Optus quietly began shopping its sports rights to buyers last year, with Stan among the first approached.
Now, with the Premier League headed to Stan Sport, and Optus still footing a significant chunk of the bill, the future of sports broadcasting in Australia has never looked more fiercely contested, or financially fraught.
Nine Entertainment Co. has declined to comment on the matter.
