OVO Mobile reports securing its second global broadcasting rights deal, for badminton, one of the world's more popular sports, with Badminton Australia signing OVO as its official broadcast and telecommunications partner for the next four years.

OVO's deal follows 400 Thunder drag racing's re-signing of OVO as its international broadcast partner last month.

The Badminton Australia deal is OVO's first to cover all distribution channels, including free-to-air broadcast, Pay TV, live event streaming, and all digital and mobile channels.

All content, including live, highlights, catch-up and on-demand programming will be available free to air in Australia, with pay-per-view and ad-free subscription tiers soon to be launched for local and international audiences.

More than 220 million people play badminton worldwide and it is particularly popular across Asia and especially China, from where the majority of the world's elite players hail, while in Australia, badminton attracts more than 100,000 players and numbers continue to grow year on year.

Badminton Australia chief executive Derek O'Leary said: "The calibre of competition played here in Australia is world-class. We know there is an international audience for our events, and the opportunities that come with that for our athletes, but up until now we had no way to consistently get their attention.

"As a sport, we have taken a digital-first approach to broadcasting our major events and making them internationally available. The OVOPlay platform has proven it can attract international audiences to Australian events, and help create opportunities for sports and athletes both here and overseas."

Last month alone, more than 100,000 fans tuned in to watch live and catch-up sport and entertainment content from OVO, including drag racing, esports and rugby. In the past 12 months, OVO reports attracting "more than two million views on its platforms, approximately 20% tuning in from outside Australia".

OVO chief executive Matt Jones said: "It's not only Australian fans who are hungry for quality content of their favourite sport. We'll soon be introducing subscription and pay-per-view tiers on top of our robust free-to-air offering to help capitalise on growing local and international interest, and our new deal with Badminton Australia is a big part of that.

"Badminton is played competitively by an international community of people that is nearly nine times the population of Australia. Add to that fans of the sport, and we are talking about a massive audience that is hungry for unique, quality content.

"There is a huge audience for badminton in Australia, particularly among local participants and people who are fans of the Asian and other international leagues. I can't think of a better opportunity for us to escalate the growth of our local and international audience base for free-to-air content, and introduce quality subscription and pay-per-view offerings as well."

All content on OVOPlay is available free to stream, and is also available data-free to OVO mobile subscribers.