Next up on Telstra's Next G - the Olympic Games, live

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 27 March 2008 09:58

Your IT - Mobility

Telstra has done a multi-million dollar deal with the Seven Media Group to stream live coverage of the Olympic Games to Telstra customers on the Next G network – but the cost to consumers hasn’t been announced yet.

When the Olympic Games or other major global sports events are on, it’s practically impossible to walk into any store without a TV somewhere broadcasting the action for all to see, such is the interest and excitement.

Telstra have now ensured that its Next G customers don’t even need to go anywhere to catch some of the upcoming Olympic action by signing a deal that will see the Olympics broadcast to Next G phones, and not just selected snippets either, but live coverage.

The Seven Media Group, which owns the free-to-air Channel 7 in Australia, is a long time Olympic broadcast partner of the International Olympic Committee, and now have three additional partners to assist in the rebroadcasting of the Olympic Games - SBS, the part-owned Yahoo!7 portal and now Telstra.

BigPond Group Managing Director, Mr Justin Milne, said that: "BigPond is delighted to be at the cutting edge with live Olympics coverage. BigPond Sport's Next G mobile coverage will let you cheer on the Aussies from the bus stop, in a cab, while you are shopping or having lunch in the park.”

Milne continued that: "Telstra's Next G™ network is Australia's largest and fastest national mobile network and it covers 99 per cent of the Australian population. This multi-million dollar deal with the Seven Network and Yahoo!7 will mean more Australians have access to live Games coverage."

Seven Media Group CEO, Mr David Leckie said: "We are pleased to be working closely with BigPond to ensure even more Australians have access to our coverage of the Beijing Olympics."

Leckie continued that: "Our Beijing coverage is our biggest undertaking since the Sydney 2000 Games and having it streamed on Telstra Next G mobiles adds an entirely new dimension. Now Australians can watch the Olympics on multiple platforms - on television on Seven and SBS, online on Yahoo!7 and on mobiles on Telstra's Next G network.”

The Australian IT has reported the deal is worth AUD $9m, with Telstra and the Seven Media Group to share in subscription revenue, with Telstra unable to sell any additional advertising as the live video feed will effectively be a rebroadcast of the Channel 7 free-to-air broadcast. 
 
Please read onto page 2, where we share our thoughts on how much the service should cost.