Optus snaps up FA Cup rights in Australia

Optus Sport, the subscription streaming platform of the Australian telecoms group, has secured domestic rights to English soccer’s FA Cup knockout competition under a multi-year deal.

Beginning with the 2024-25 season, Optus will provide live and exclusive coverage of matches from the first round in November through to the final at Wembley in May next year.

The streaming service’s deal will commence with coverage of the 2024 Community Shield between Premier League winners Manchester City and FA Cup holders Manchester United at Wembley on August 10.

FA Cup rights in Australia were previously held by media giant Paramount which aired games on its Paramount+ OTT platform and Network 10 commercial television network.

As well as live streaming coverage, Optus Sport will offer subscribers replays and extended highlights.

It has become the dominant broadcaster of English soccer in Australia and holds Premier League rights until 2028. It also showed the Women’s Super League until the end of the 2023-24 season.

Disney-owned US sports broadcast giant ESPN recently extended its FA Cup rights deal in the US for another four years.

Domestically, TNT Sports obtained the main rights to the prestigious cup competition from 2025-26 earlier this year and agreed a sublicensing deal with the BBC, the UK’s public-service broadcaster, in May. Sportcal