Optus Sport Breaks Viewership Records

Optus Sport’s coverage of the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League final in Madrid has broken live streaming records to deliver the highest ever viewership, increasing almost 20% versus the previous record.

The highly-anticipated Champions League final between Liverpool FC and Tottenham Hotspur generated 16.5 million live streaming minutes and also helped Optus achieve a 150 per cent rise in unique weekly viewers year-on-year.

“We’re delighted with the massive growth of Optus Sport this year and with the amazing feedback we’ve had from viewers,” Optus’ Head of TV and Content, Corin Dimopoulos, said.

“Our broadcast has delivered non-stop thrills and drama and resonated strongly with a large number of football fans in Australia.

“Optus is proud of producing world-class sports coverage and our commitment to deliver must-watch entertainment has seen the volume of football games broadcast on Optus Sport almost triple in the last year.”

Despite repeated disruptions to its streaming coverage of the 2018 Fifa World Cup, Optus was still able to secure a deal last summer to show the Uefa Champions League and Europa League through 2021 and is now reaping the rewards with its latest audience figures.

Taking into account Optus’ coverage of both competitions, combined with its rights to broadcast the Premier League, it has streamed more than 1,500 hours of live soccer in the last year.

This is set to continue as the Australian telco is set to stream the finals of the Uefa Nations League and the Fifa Women’s World Cup, which gets underway on Friday.

The strategy of securing rights to some of soccer’s biggest competitions has seen Optus’ revenues climb, as last months reports show 10.28 million mobile subscribers and mobile revenue of AUS$6 billion, compared to 9.43 million subscribers and AUS$5.5 billion in 2015.