Its War, Telstra: Optus Appeal TVNow Decision

Telco confirmed all out war against rival Telstra, NRL and AFL over sporting broadcasts.
Paul O’Sullivan, Optus Chief Executive has just confirmed the telco will appeal the Federal Court’s TVNow decision in the High Court.

The National Rugby League (NRL)and Australian Football League (AFL) sporting bodies and Australia’s biggest telco, Telstra, took Optus to court looking to ban its TVNow mobile app, which allowed users to record free-to-air content and play it back within minutes of the live broadcast.

Telstra paad both sporting codes million for exclusive online broadcast rights, which Optus’ mobile app rendered virtually worthless. 

After initially winning the case before the Federal court earlier this year, Optus later lost the appeal by Telstra and the sporting giants, in a decision handed down last month.

The Federal Court ruled that Optus was in fact responsible for its customers recording content on its TVNow service.

“We believe the TV Now case is extremely important in deciding the future for innovation, consumer choice and competition”, said O’Sullivan today. 

“Increasingly, developments like cloud computing will see Australians using applications held online and wanting to store online rather than just using fixed hardware based in the home.”

The telco also claims it is doing this for the good of its customers:

“Australian consumers want legitimate access to content on any device regardless of the genre and we want to continue making the latest technologies available to Australians to meet this demand.”

Optus also said broadcast rights is a “very important public policy issue that needs to be determined by the highest court in the land”

“As innovations like TV Now are readily available in other parts of the world, Australia must remain globally competitive and embrace the rapid convergence of technologies as we head towards an NBN world, said O’Sullivan.