I decided to keep my account open with Optus post world cup.  You get the EPL and a some Champions League Games.

But I'm cancelling my subscription.

They don't even have the Huddersfield game on replay.  The main reason I am keeping the account is to watch games on replay.  It seems completely daft to not have the only team with an Australian outfield player in the EPL not available for replay.  This happened a lot last year as well.

Live games are completely fkd.  You load up a live game and their is no option to watch from the start.  It goes straight to the live time.  I've begun covering the top of the screen and muting the volume and then quickly clicking earlier in the video to watch it from the start. Then is goes back to the live time again. So I have this stupid fkn routine where I have to cover the screen, mute the volume, and then click once to the start, wait a few seconds and then click again to the start - just so I can watch the game without it being ruined.

This morning I go to watch the Man U v Tottenham game. I click the replay and it goes straight to the 80 minute mark. Shows the score and ruins the game.  

Im obviously pissed.

How hard can this be?  

not to mention that the games reduce to being completed unwatchable in quality every 10 minutes.

I think it's just annoying having to hook the laptop to the tv but watching on the iphone is nice  

I have had the same problem with watching it on demand and not going back to where I left off. The reason the Huddersfield Town match wasn't on demand is because of rights issues. They have one game a week where they can't show on demand or something like that. Optus explained it on twitter once. Normally you will get most matches on demand. 

I think Optus are losing a bucket load of cash on this deal.  I can't see them being able to maintain this long term.  

They can and they will. This is Optus' way of fighting back against Telstra and it's common place across the globe these days. They would lose more money giving up than they would if they were to fix the odd issues here or there.

You don't have to. Just get a fetch box and watch through that on your TV. It's a lot more stable than watching on the app anyway. 

Ive not had any issues with it since the season started. I run it from the app  to the tv mostly but do have the free fetch mini in another room.
I just miss those nights where you could just flick between 5 games on foxtel. Its so clunky and hard to do on fetch or the app.
I've almost completely lost interest in the premier league this year already. Just been so boring. Im blaming optus... hahaha... no i blame the world cup. We get so spoilt with it nothing else compares.

“I think Optus are losing a bucket load of cash on this deal.“

That’s not what their published financial statements say. Getting customers in to mobile phone and Broadband plans is how they raise money and the EPL is just a carrot to get people to do that. Seems to be working for them.

Maybe I'm in the minority, I've been pleasantly surprised with the Optus app. The option for "Watch Live" or "Start Over' has been working for me and no scores are showed unless I select the "Show Scores" option.
I haven't tried to watch a full replay though...so can't comment on that.

You can flick between them on fetch! I don't know why everyone doesn't use the boxes. It's so much more convenient than fiddling with your phone. 

My Amazon Fire Stick has the Optus Sport app so its just a matter of logging in.

I GOT the amazon fire stick in england and i can't find the optus sport app anywhere

Link Waz? Can't find it from my 2 min search...

I've never had a problem - using the app and a Chromecast

@ Burztur

If you search within Optus’s financial reports you’ll find more details but here’s a link which is dated this year and there’s plenty from about this time last year when trends started to emerge but that takes a bit more searching:

https://mumbrella.com.au/epl-rights-drives-optus-gains-researcher-claims-515896


NEWSEnglish Premier League rights drives Optus gains, researcher claims

Winning the Australian broadcast rights to the English Premier League may have paid dividends for Optus with a 1.1 percentage points bounce in the telco’s subscriber numbers since the deal was signed, according to figures from Roy Morgan Research.

The new research suggests the EPL contract, which Optus renewed just last week, has boosted the telco’s traffic. For Australians who watch the EPL, Optus mobile usage has climbed by four percentage points, to 23.8%.

Optus’ purchase of the EPL has paid off, Roy Morgan numbers show

Other figures including Australians who use Optus as a broadband service provider, with 12.2% of Australians using the service, up 2.9 points from three years ago. Of those who watch the EPL, that figure has grown by 4.7 percentage points, from 10.8% to 15.5%.

The new research follows Optus’ retention of the Australian rights for an additional three seasons. The telco first snatched the broadcast and digital rights for the EPL from Fox Sports in 2015. Initially, it won the rights to 380 games from August, 2016. At the time, CEO Allen Lew said the move was central to the telco’s transformation to becoming a content platform.

Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan said the new figures suggested Optus’ purchasing of the Australian coverage rights paid off.

“Telecommunications company Optus took a huge gamble nearly three years ago by purchasing the Australian coverage rights to the English Premier League (EPL) for $63 million per year. However, the latest research from Roy Morgan shows viewers of the EPL have definitively boosted Optus subscriber growth for both fixed broadband and mobile services over the past three years,” Levine said.

“Those who watch the EPL either regularly or occasionally have switched to Optus at a greater rate for both fixed broadband services and mobile phone services,” she added.

When Optus announced the new deal last week, it announced it would make Optus Sport available for all Australians with a direct to consumer option. The figures in the latest report reflect the last three years, when access was limited to subscribers of the telco’s phone and data services.

Was the SBS Wolves vs Man City game taken from the Optus feed? Because the quality was garbage. Loss of signal, loss of commentary. Terrible.

Optus ARPU is $46/month so they’d only need 114,000 new subscribers to recover revenue, growths rates from telcos are notoriously difficult to evaluate as they tend to sugar coat them but in a dog-eat-dog sector it seems Optus are backing football in general with the EPL at the heart of that to fight Telstra

https://www.afr.com/business/telecommunications/optus-outruns-telstra-doubts-tpg-telecom-20180517-h106vb

If you read the Singtel financials, there is a clear goal to be a content provider as well (or at least broadcast it) since that is the growth area they need to tap into.

Been watching on HTPC with Firefox.  No problems with quality, glitches, or whatever.  Just fall asleep in the games.

works fine on appleTV too.

only thing is the on demand or start over thing often jumps to the current point of the game but I just cover the screen until it loads up and then go back. shouldnt be that hard to get right though. 

@ Burztur

Correct. They used to talk about triple-play or quad-play which referred to fixed telephone, broadband, and tv content over broadband pipes and a quad-play of mobile as well.

You can see Optus going down this route, FoxTel to a certain extent with their entry into the Broadband market but without a network (especially a 5G network) it’s questionable how well FoxTel can perform longer term?

Live sports is perfectly positioned for this of course, Optus have seemingly fixed on football (for now)

It does cost more. I've got the free one and it takes ages to change. Its definitely not like changing a channel on regular tv

I watched that game on Fetch ... had no quality issues, loss of signal or commentary. So must have been a SBS issue.

On Fetch I simply go up to the the high numbers (the EPL channel is repeated in the 900s, so I simply go there for "Goal Rush" then flick up and down between the other games if I want to watch them. No "wall" but just like changing between channels on a regular TV in my experience.

A fast forward 10 seconds option would be super handy other than that it's been pretty good (world cup aside) 

This for me also. Always loved goal rush on NBC.

EPL has been working perfectly for me - both on PC as well as Android and Chromecast. That's since the WC disaster.

I haven't noticed the replay or delayed stream stuff, I only watch live.

I have dumped Optus since the World Cup and was keen to dump Foxtel too (subs been on pause) thinking the new ffa app would have me covered for A-League but they’ve blocked screen sharing I believe so reluctantly I will have to restart Foxtel. Apparently Foxtel will be announcing some sports only atreaming service too to fight back against Optus so will be interesting what gets offered and what it means for existing subscribers(they’ll be aiming to not cannibalise their current base via customer dumping to cheaper options)

Yeah that's the digital rights issue in regards to Telstra/Fox. 

Same goes for the NRL/AFL apps.

-PB