Singtel-Optus pads up with Cricket Australia to stream games Singtel-Optus has signed a multimillion-dollar sponsorship deal with Cricket Australia to be its streaming partner. The telco hopes that offering live streaming matches and free season passes will encourage customers to see it as more than just a utility. Singtel- Optus chief executive Allen Lew said the deal was just the beginning, with broadcast rights at other codes under negotiation. The telecommunications giant is fighting hard to partner with media players such as Netflix and differentiate itself from rivals wanting to eat its market share. "Optus has never been in sports rights and we're now in the game," he said. "We've chosen something very timely with summer coming up and we've chosen a national sport ... We have the necessary budget, as we showed with our mobile network budget, to do what we need to do, and as long as we can justify it I'm sure our shareholders will give us the dollars to do it." From   October 29 all Optus users will be able to access Cricket Australia Live Pass, with the data not counting against their download allowances.