An Australian Federal Court of Appeal, ruling en banc, found on Friday Optus liable in violating the exclusive rights of Telstra Corporation in broadcasting the near-live games of Australia's premier football and rugby leagues.

In its decision, the court said that Optus infringed on the copyright ownerships of the AFL and the NRL while at the same time circumvented on the exclusive coverage deals secured by Telstra with the two sports associations.

"Optus could be said to be the maker in that the service it offered to, and did, supply a subscriber was to make and to make available to that person a recording of the football match he or she selected," the full bench panel was quoted Business Day as saying in the decision.

The panel, according to the publication, was composed of justices Arthur Emmett, Annabelle Bennett and Paul Finn.

They effectively overturned an earlier ruling handed down by Justice Steven Rares of the NSW Federal Court, which favoured Optus for allowing the online streaming, delayed by two minutes, of the AFL and NRL games through its network.

Mr Rares said in February that Optus was not at fault when the telco's subscribers "alone did the acts involved in recording the copyright works."

But the new ruling rejected Optus' stance and insisted that the company allowed its facilities to be employed in recording the events or games that were protected by exclusivity and as agreed by Telstra and league officials.

Optus, the justices said, was guilty of breaching copyright laws when it opted not to stop the questionable broadcasting of the games via its TV Now services.

"The maker was Optus or, in the alternative, it was Optus and the subscriber," the court said.

Additionally, Optus cannot hide under the protection of the country's Copyright Act, which only allows the recording of music and film when use for personal and domestic purposes only, the court ruling noted.

In a statement, Optus has admitted that the latest court ruling came as disappointment but the company stressed that "we will now go away to consider our options, which will include an appeal."

On its part, Telstra hailed the judgement as Australia's way of protecting intellectual property rights, which allow holder firms "to invest in improving the quality of their content."

"(The ruling) ensures that sports bodies and Australian content owners more generally, are able to receive a fair return from their property," the country's dominant telco was reported by Business Day as saying on Friday.

Addressing reporters outside of the court room, Telstra spokesman Craig Middleton called the decision as a form of "vindication for the sporting bodies and the content providers."

"This provides certainty for the content providers, players, fans and sport in general," Mr Middleton was reported as saying by The Australian.