Optus making sports mobile by pinching EPL rights from Fox

We may have had a major shift in how we consume television this year with the arrival of Netflix and Stan, but the biggest change is yet to happen as live sports goes digital.

That change just got sped up in a big way today, with Optus successfully acquiring the broadcast rights for the English Premier League from Fox Sports.

Commencing in August 2016, Optus now has the exclusive rights for both "live broadcast coverage and digital rights for broadband and mobile" for the next three seasons of the Barclays EPL.

Mobile Gooooooaaaaaaaaaallllllllll!

Optus is yet to unveil exactly how customers will be able to watch the EPL next year. But one of the interesting aspects of its announcement is that it is moving towards becoming a "mobile-led multimedia company".

Having a solid focus on mobile and broadband streaming of the sport (likely through the company's partnership with Fetch TV) means a fairly drastic change in how sport will be consumed in Australia.

Without a traditional broadcast platform of its own, that focus on mobile takes extra significance. There is a chance that Optus will on-sell the rights to a more traditional broadcaster, but in today's on demand entertainment environment, it seems obvious that the focus for Optus will be in digital delivery.

• One place we're confident you won't see the EPL is on the new Telstra TV

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Twitch flips the switch on a new Australian data centre

As popular as the live streaming video platform Twitch is, it's safe to say that the quality of its viewing performance can at times be unsatisfactory for Australian users.

Thankfully, the service has taken our concerns to heart, and is remedying them by launching a new Australian data centre that should see the quality of local streams rise significantly.

Twitch made a big appearance at the PAX Australia convention in Melbourne this past week, with its global PR lead Chase telling PC Gamer that the service is "investing heavily in infrastructure to improve our quality of service for both broadcasters and viewers," and that it will "be rolling out a new datacenter in Sydney this month."

The service also conducted a Twitch Town Hall forum, which can be watched online in its entirety, that allowed the Twitch team to tell Aussie users about its vision for the service, while also taking questions from the audience members in attendance.

Twitch also stated that it's "building [its] Partnerships team in Australia to better assist our local broadcasting community", which is probably a good idea, as the successful launch of YouTube Gaming in August has stolen some of Twitch's thunder as of late.

• Could YouTube Gaming outplay Twitch?

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Oculus Founder: Cables To Be Major Obstacle In VR Industry For A Long Time

 It might sound obvious, but if you’re hoping that mom will want to hop into virtual reality while you make her drag around a bunch of ugly ass (and dangerous) wires, it probably won’t happen. That’s why Oculus is doing projects like its partnership with Samsung on the Gear VR. It makes virtual reality mobile. When the latest iteration was announced, our own Josh Constine… Read More

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Watch The Inspiring Movie ‘CODEGIRL’ For Free On YouTube Until November 5th

 Alphabet, which backs diversity in all facets of technology, is helping to shed light on a specific project…a film called “CODEGIRL“. It comes via filmmaker Lesley Chilcott, who you might be familiar with from her work on “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Waiting for Superman.” Countdown 2 @codegirlmovie! 12noon PT launch today on @YouTube.… Read More

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Home Services Startup Porch Sheds 90 Employees, Key Executives Bolt

 Porch, one of the many companies positioning themselves to be the go-to place for “home services,” has laid off 90 members of its staff according to Geekwire. We’ve reached out to Porch for a statement (See the update below). The company has raised $98.85M to date in 3 rounds. Their competitors include Amazon, Angie’s List, Pro.com and HomeAdvisor, just to name a few.… Read More

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Instagram Launches A Curated Feed Around Events, Starting With Halloween

 Is Snapchat, the brazen baby of the major social media platforms, slowly killing the hashtag? It looked that way yesterday, when for Halloween, Instagram curated content in a special feed for users who wished to view Halloween-based content from their friends and others, reports Wired. This normally wouldn’t be a very big deal, and on its own, it isn’t. However, Twitter… Read More

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Now Facebook wants to be your Local Market too

Mark Zuckerberg and his team of engineers seem keen to spread Facebook's capabilities way beyond the social network's original remit - from digital assistants to virtual reality - and now it looks like they've got their eyes on the buying and selling scene as well.

A select number of users have spotted a new Local Market feature living inside the Facebook app, a feature that lets you buy and sell goods in your local area. There's been no official news from Facebook and it appears the Local Market option is in the very early stages of testing right now.

Eventually, it could become a fully fledged competitor to eBay, Amazon, Etsy, Craigslist and other similar sites - anywhere you can buy and sell stuff with your neighbours. Alternatively, Facebook could ditch it altogether if these early trials don't go well.

Buyer (and seller) beware

The Local Market page is apparently built on top of existing local Facebook groups where items are already bought and sold - so it's not so much a completely new feature as a better way of finding these pages, complete with improved search and organisation.

Some of the categories spotted by testers include music, property, autos, gardening, DIY, clothes and beauty. No matter what you're after - or what you need to flog - it looks as though Local Market will have you covered.

We should know more if and when Facebook makes the feature official. If it does get the green light then it'll be one more reason to keep Facebook installed on your phone beyond those inane status updates and photo posts from people having a better time than you are.

• A Facebook 'dislike' button is in the works

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