Optus Sport have welcomed growing competition in Australian football broadcast circles after losing the UEFA Champions League rights and remain committed to the sport moving forward.
Despite bidding to retain the chance to broadcast the competition, Optus fell short with Stan Sport swooping in to secure their first round ball rights.
While Stan have impressed when it comes to rejuvenating Super Rugby, fans are frustrated by the prospect of needing to subscribe to another outlet for football.
With Network Ten and Paramount + recently picking up domestic football rights, there are now four different providers of round ball content in Australia.
Rather than begrudge the new competition however, Optus vice-president of product development, content and TV, Clive Dickens, believes such fragmentation is necessary for the game moving forward.
"Having everything in one place has proven to be an unsustainable model,” Dickens said via the Sydney Morning Herald.
"The value you get from these products...whether it’s Disney+ or Paramount+ or Stan - all of the operators have kept their price point in an individually affordable way, opposed to what some Australian households were paying in aggregate five or 10 years ago.
"I still think there’s a bit of elasticity in the market but what really needs to happen is we need to provide a better service for consumers to understand where everything is and how they can see value. As the market fragments more, there’s more opportunity to help simplify the market."
Though disappointed to lose the Champions League, Optus have the English Premier League rights for next season and will broadcast the 2023 Women's World Cup.
Dickens stressing that the company remain committed to football with over 870,000 active subscribers to date.
“While we are disappointed that our bid for future rights to these club competitions has been unsuccessful, it reaffirms our premium content strategy of building engagement around access to exclusive premium sports content," Dickens said via an Optus Sport release.
"Optus Sport has provided unprecedented coverage of the Champions League and Europa League.
"Our Optus Sport team continues to revolutionise the way football is broadcast in Australia and we continue to attract new viewers to the code who love what Optus Sport does.
"I’d like to thank UEFA for providing us with the opportunity to build and showcase the UEFA Champions League, which along with English Premier League, has built Optus Sport’s position as the leader in OTT streaming in Australia."