In today’s massive $1.53 Billion, 5 year announcement it was revealed that BigPond was successful in securing exclusive access to all AFL delivered via IPTV. This means if your not with BigPond, your out of luck. If you are indeed a BigPond subscriber, you can get matches via the Telstra T-Box, T-Hub or Samsung SmartTV’s with a BigPond Sport app.
While IPTV currently makes up a relatively small percentage of viewers in 2011, by the time the deal ends 2017 it’ll be a different story. If everything goes to plan, the National Broadband Network should be online across large segments of Australia, meaning that it’ll be possible to stream multiple HD streams around the home.
So what if you want one of your displays to be showing an AFL Game ? Well, you better be with BigPond. This isn’t the only sport locked up with BigPond, V8 Supercars is also annoyingly exclusive to BigPond. As someone who’s been with a variety of ISPs over the years, I feel the pain of those not with the biggest ISP in Australia when it comes to missing out on sports. One the flip side, if other competitors could come to the party, then BigPond’s chequebook should win.. right ?
Another interesting outcome of the #AFLRights deal is Foxtel on Xbox 360. While Foxtel will stream every AFL game live on pay tv, they can’t deliver AFL via Foxtel on Xbox 360 as this would breach Bigpond’s IPTV rights.
Update
Turns out I was wrong. Commenter Damien Kelly points out that Foxtel have confirmed AFL via Foxtel on Xbox 360 will indeed happen. This may be via a licencing agreement between BigPond and Foxtel.
On a side note, Telstra mobile customers will get to stream every AFL game live (no word on pricing).
