How it started
History
Its immediate predecessor was Optus Vision, a joint venture between Optus and Continental Cablevision, with small shareholdings by media companies Publishing & Broadcasting Limited and Seven Network. It was founded to handle residential cable television and local telephony, while its parent concentrated on corporate, long-distance, satellite and interstate communications. It used a hybrid fibre coaxial cable network to connect homes to its network and subsequently added broadband cable internet access.
Optus Vision used the Optus telecommunications licence as its authority to build a cable network, which it deployed in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.
Optus's main competition, especially in the metropolitan areas, was Foxtel, a joint venture between Telstra and News Corporation.
Optus negotiated exclusive access to AFL, rugby league, and other sports, and had exclusive access to Disney Channel, ESPN and MTV Australia, but lacked the general entertainment channels Foxtel had. It commenced its cable TV service in September 1995, one month before Foxtel, delivering a limited number of channels to a small number of subscribers, all of whom were connected via its Blacktown Exchange.
From 1995 to 1997, the Super League war waged between the two consortia over lucrative rugby league rights.
From Wikipedia’s article on Optus Television, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2