Foxtel have today announced a move to team up with network beIN sports, in a exciting move that is sure to provide some consolation to football fans who have been shaken by the recent loss of the English Premier League broadcast rights to Optus.
From May 15th, the creation of three new channels will present live coverage from a plethora of leagues around the world, including the Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1, as well as a collection of international fixtures headlined by every game of this year’s European Championships. Continental clashes are featured too, with the final of this year’s Europa League and Champions League competitions to be shown. Domestic cup competitions and smaller worldwide leagues including Scotland, the MLS and the Brazilian Serie A will also be available.
In massive news for fans, these channels will be free for all those with a Foxtel sports package, available to those with both HD and regular quality subscriptions and will provide additional content, such as the existing A-League and international fixtures that will remain on Fox Sports 1,2,3 or 4 and ESPN 1 & 2.
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Those who are currently subscribed to beIN will have their subscriptions automatically cancelled, with a guarantee from Foxtel of no funds to be lost.
Details surrounding exactly when and how this exciting transition will take place can be found here.
Obviously, the headline omission from this impressive list is the English Premier League. Late last year, Optus’ shock announcement that they had obtained the rights to the largest domestic league in the world was met by widespread outrage from fans throughout Australia, with many threatening to cancel their Fox Sports subscriptions as a result. Today’s news can be seen as an attempt to rescue these potential losses, as the removal of this headline league has evidently produced this push to possess different world-class competitions, content never before seen by Fox Sports audiences. For all of the negative publicity over the past few months in regards the the EPL rights, it is a win win situation for both the audience and organisation, as Fox continue to reinforce their claim as “the home of live sport”.
Interestingly, the date of May 15th co-insides with the final day of the EPL season, in the hope to leave no time for audiences to consider their futures with the network.
However, the situation of how exactly Australians will be able to watch the Premier League remains relatively unclear. Optus themselves are expected to utilise their Fetch TV network, and SBS have obtained the rights to one match a week. There has also been talk of Sony entering the equation, through their popular PlayStation network.
These additional attractions may well prove also to have a positive effect on the viewership on the domestic A-League, as these new leagues are sure to draw in fans of hundreds of European clubs that may currently primarily subscribe to the single beIN channel.
From the point of view of an Australian sports fan, this announcement is no doubt the source of great excitement, answering the calls of the many who have, in the past, been turned off by the additional cost to watch football from all over the world.
A resolution to do with the EPL rights is paramount in importance, however, today’s announcement ensures that the weekends will remain jam-packed for football fans, with beIN to be the source of 24/7 action from all corners of the planet.
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