Never underestimate how truly big a blow sensationally losing the English Premier League rights is to Foxtel and Fox Sports.
A huge portion of the pay-TV provider’s business model relies solely on its sports offering, and the exclusive EPL rights made up a massive chunk of that.
Optus‘ (and subsequently SBS as well) pulled off an almighty coup in spiriting the English league away, and the mammoth ramifications of that deal won’t fully be felt until the new EPL season commences later in the year, and the new deal comes into effect.
So with Foxtel left effectively football-less, the company began a process of scrambling to fill the gaping void left by the EPL’s departure. And they’ve not only done just that, they’ve lobbed a retaliation shot in what’s more or less turning into a war for footballing audiences in Australia.
Foxtel today announced the addition of beIN Sports to their standard sports package. The three new sports channels were previously only available as an extra, standalone subscription. But from this point on they’ll be featured in the service’s standard sports package.
The kicker here, is that beIN covers just about every major European footballing league and competition that’s not named the EPL.
The channels carry the Spanish La Liga, the Italian Serie A, the German Bundesliga, and even the Brazilian Serie A competitions.
What’s more, despite SBS announcing that they secured free-to-air rights for the knockout stages of the upcoming UEFA Euro 2016 tournament, beIN covers every game of the hotly anticipated contest – from group stages right through to the hoisting of the trophy.
Better still, the networks cover the entirety of a slew of high profile tournaments including the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League, and the UEFA Super Cup.
All three new channels will be broadcast in full, glorious HD, and will make the shift as of May 15th.
You still have to pay for the rest of Foxtel before you can access the sport part of it. But, y’know, this is still a pretty solid score and bound to excite fans, as well as frustrate more than a few who’ll now have to choose between which leagues they want to watch (or fork out more if that answer is “all”).
Source: Foxtel.
Photo: VI-Images/Getty.
