Kayo To Be New Free Sports Destination With Free Tier
Telstra is getting out of live sports streaming. Kayo is taking the mantle from FTA TV.
Telstra are getting out of live sport streaming. From 2023 Telstra will no longer live stream AFL or NRL. And presumably netball if that’s your thing.
Kayo will pick up the slack.
In February Kayo will be offering a free tier. All you need to sign up is your email address. No doubt they will use your email address to bombard you with enticements to upgrade to paid Kayo. But free ain’t bad I suppose.
Of course what this will inevitably lead to as is suggested in The Age article attached is Kayo’s free tier will be the replacement for free to air TV. They plan it to substitute for free to air TV to get around the Australian Government’s anti-siphoning list which legislated major live sporting events need to be broadcast on free to air TV. It’s why the AFL & NRL Grand Finals are broadcast on Channel 7 & Channel 9 respectively.
Foxtel have been lobbying against the anti-siphoning list for years and this might finally be a way for them to get around it.
Kayo will be a one stop live sports streaming shop.
They could bid for and subsequently offer the Olympics on Kayo. The AFL Grand Final, the NRL Grand Final & the Boxing Day cricket Test.
Whether the Government allows it is another thing. It might not pass the pub test. The new base standard for free live major sporting events won’t just be a TV and an antenna but an Internet connection. And we all know how terrible Australia’s National Broadband Network is.
I honestly don’t think the Government will have a choice in this. The reason: Australia’s commercial free to air TV networks just can’t afford the sport rights costs anymore. Channel 7, Channel 9 & Channel 10. And the ABC and SBS are restrained by Government frugality.
So Foxtel might be here for some time to come. Just in the form of Kayo (and Binge. Which I can see them eventually bundling with Kayo for a discount). Stan Sport and Optus Sport are now Foxtel/Kayo’s main competitors (in addition to sports leagues that go direct like NBA, NHL & NFL) now that the free to air TV networks are down for the count. And maybe Amazon Prime Video might get in the game.
The Bathurst 500 V8 Supercars will be the first event streamed on Kayo’s free tier.
Will you subscribe to Kayo’s free tier? Are you saddened at the demise of the commercial free to air TV networks? Will you cancel your Foxtel Satellite/Cable/Now subscription and sign up to Kayo and Binge instead?
Recommended reading:
Why Kayo could help V’landys land knockout blow to AFL in TV cash fight (The Age)
This Medium article was adapted from a submission to the Foxtel Complaints Facebook group.
Anthony Eales is a media, news & tech junkie from Australia. You can reach him on Twitter @ants000.
