Will 2022 finally be the year we get picture in picture for Foxtel Go on iPad? Or will it be the year I finally cancel my subscription? What an exciting day.
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Foxtel Group outlines streaming-led growth strategy
The Foxtel Group, with the support of its shareholders News Corp and Telstra, today held a Strategy Day to update the investment community on its growth and transformation and to outline a series of aspirations as Australiaâs most dynamic streaming-led media company.
The update confirmed that the future growth of the Foxtel Group will be driven by streaming, currently through its fast-growing streaming services, Kayo Sports and BINGE, and the opportunity for further growth through its recently announced live news aggregation streaming service, Flash.
The Foxtel Group also revealed a transition to a streaming-led future for Foxtel Retail following the recent launch of the iQ5 plug and play IP set top box. This transition, designed to strengthen Foxtelâs subscriber base and revenue, includes a future as a streaming aggregator of Foxtelâs content along with integrating a broad range of local and global streaming apps. This transition will be boosted later this year with a software update that will allow its popular iQ4 set top box to be IP-only, without the need for satellite.
The successful implementation of the Foxtel Group strategy has enabled the company to articulate new three-year ambitions, including reaching:
5 million plus subscribers, having reached four million total subscribers in FY-21, one million higher in the past 12 months.
Approximately $3 billion in revenue with continued opportunities for margin expansion, supported by streaming revenue growth, continuing to slow the decline in residential broadcast revenue and ongoing cost transformation through digital growth and operational efficiencies.
A capex to revenue ratio of 4%, having fallen from 14% in FY-19 to 7% in FY-21, to help underpin the Groupâs continued strong cash performance of $274 million in FY-21 (EBITDA less capex).
Foxtel Group Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Delany, said: âOur strategy briefing highlights todayâs Foxtel Group is a very different company to the one-product Foxtel of three or four years ago.âThe business has been repositioned as a technology-led streaming company with multiple sources of revenue growth from streaming, a strengthened Foxtel Retail offering and growth in digital advertising.â
Same as Foxtel Go/Now. Around 1 second
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Theyâd want to fix that surely in the next 12-18 months. The increased 4K content does sound appealing though.
How? When I watch something on demand on Netflix or Stan or Prime it takes 1 or 2 seconds to jump in. Linear is the same concept except the video is live so I donât think itâs a Foxtel problem.
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Usually about a second. Itâs actually faster than my LG TVâs effort at changing FTA stations. Sometimes it takes an extra second or so to hit full bitrate and picture quality.
In terms of internet speed, 50/20 is more than enough for HD content. Foxtel HD content seems to sit around 5-10Mbps. In fact 4K content works fine on 50/20 but I donât think I could run more than one 4K stream at a time, and Iâd suggest if youâre not getting at least 35Mbps down then your 4K experience is going to be patchy, so some ISPs could prove problematic at peak times.
For purposes of comparison, Iâm with Aussie Broadband on 50/20 FTTN (probably going back to 100/40 soon now that my speed and dropouts have been traced to a failing router) and the IQ5âs speed test consistently reports 48-49Mbps even during evening peak.
And Iâm also finding the streaming delay to be less on some channels on IQ5 than on Now/Go. Eg. The cricket on Fox Cricket the other day was seven seconds behind Prime Canberra. The news channels are just as far behind on both services though. Top of hour comes 40+ seconds late on Sky News. Iâm theorising that Fox Sports channels are using different encoders for IQ5 and Now/Go.
Crime series The Killer Truth, which tells the story of a single murder through the five people most intimately connected to the case, has been acquired by TF1 in France and Foxtel.
Foxtel has also renewed Sins & Secrets, the first season of Trace of Evil, Wives With Knives and Ice Cold Killers.
Itâs so close to instant if you swapped out someoneâs IQ2 they wouldnât notice.
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Iâm shocked by the word âviewersâ plural in the above.
Surely the audience would be miniscule.
What would Foxtelâs model be for this, being paid to rebroadcast by the providers?
Just so Foxtel can add some incremental income and boost the number of channels they say they provide?
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Didnât think those channels existed anymore?
they are being paid to broadcast this.
I donât know what sort of bump daystar has added to subs (given it is free on Optus D2 with the right gear) but i was attending Hillsong church when that channel launched, and in the church video news they promoâd it every week for like 3 months
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Surely the total audience of Daystar TV via Foxtel wouldnât be any higher than 0.01%?!
Having said that, I really do hope Foxtel will remove Daystar from its platform if thereâs sufficient evidence that COVID-19 misinformation is among the offerings of this channel.
While for the most part Iâve got nothing against people who are religious (provided that any beliefs held are not extremist and/or illegal), at the same time I personally think faith-based media is among some of the worst. Another example, those rather scummy âSend $1000 and miracles will happen!â programs/channels.
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Daystar pays Foxtel to broadcast it. Itâs the same with all the religious channels as well as other channels that are on there.
Just a theory I have with Foxtel, but Iâm thinking as a general rule, if the channel is on broadcast Foxtel but not on Foxtel Go, itâs likely to be a channel Foxtel is being paid to broadcast.
Hence why the religious channels and some of the news and shopping channels donât appear on streaming.
TVSN doesnât fit the above as that is on the app, so maybe they stumped up a bit extra.
Happy to be corrected, like I said just a theory 
Wonder whether Foxtel will look at something similar (our market might not be big enough)
https://www.sky.com/glass/technical-specifications?irct=glassHome-glass-techSpecs
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It was separately announced that Australian pay TV firm Foxtel would be the new systemâs first syndication partner.
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What does that mean?
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Foxtel will launch the product in Australia - from Sky:
Sky today announces the Foxtel Group, Australiaâs leading subscription TV company as its first Sky Glass syndication partner. Sky Glass will launch in the Australian market as an element of the Foxtel Groupâs future roadmap for its Foxtel brand and will contain both Foxtel and third-party content. This is the first of many collaborations as Sky Glass is scaled across the globe.
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