Wonder what it’s guide part is like vs TV Week’s? Always found the latter’s to be rather elite!
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Yeah. That was my experience with it too.
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are they still stingy enough to charge for HD, or have they finally with the times now?
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They finally dropped that charge at the beginning of March.
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Yeah, I remember those days lol. I had a friend who got Foxtel back in 2006 I’m not sure what package they had but I would say it was premium because they also had the magazine.
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Its ok - I found that it was often riddled with errors, the number of channels that have listings in the guide has shrunk over time too
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Long article looking at Foxtel’s future with HBO Max expected to debut before March next year and an over $100 million annual increase in the AFL broadcasting costs from next year.
Something I found interesting in the article was that Foxtel’s streaming subscribers make up 66 per cent of their “customer base”, but just 23 per cent of its revenue. Foxtel’s 1.5 million set-top box customers contribute 63 per cent of its revenue.
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This is how it is around the world.
Streaming is nowhere near as profitable as pay tv was / is
Every media company dreams for the days of pay TV now
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It’s funny though, isn’t it? With streaming you can deliver essentially the same product at a significantly lower cost (no need for satellite transmission etc) yet the money just isn’t there. I guess the competition element is a big factor - you just can’t charge what you did for Pay TV for a streaming service.
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At least in the US, it’s also about advertising
Cable networks can charge huge bucks for 30 second spots.
Billions in rev. Streamers are just starting to experiment with advertising
Also there has been a streaming war - with everyone spending billions trying to keep up with Netflix, who has changed the way hollywood works and makes money (or doesn’t)
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For those interested here is what today’s Foxtel mag listing looks like - movie channels are separate listings.
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Got to fill the pages somehow
Foxtel Group Fiscal 2024 Third Quarter Earnings
News Corp today released its Fiscal 2024 (FY24) Third Quarter (Q3) Earnings for the period ending 31 March 2024, including subscriber highlights for the Foxtel Group and financial results for the Subscription Video Services segment.
Commenting on the Foxtel Group at News Corp’s FY24 Q3 Investor Briefing, News Corp Chief Executive Robert Thomson said: “At Subscription Video Services, the Hubbl streaming aggregation product launched in March, and we are working with our partners at Comcast to shepherd its adoption throughout Australia. The intent is to reduce churn by increasing engagement and improving the customer experience.
“Excluding FOREX fluctuations, adjusted segment EBITDA overall improved by 1% in the segment.”
Subscription Video Services Segment Highlights
- Adjusted EBITDA [1] increased 1% year-on-year.
- Foxtel Group streaming subscription revenues represented 29% of total circulation and subscription revenues compared to 26% in the prior year.
Key Foxtel Group Subscriber Metrics
Total Foxtel Group subscribers of 4.591 million (4.537 million paid).
Total streaming subscribers, including Kayo Sports, BINGE and Foxtel Now reached 3.096 million up 2% year-on-year (3.041 million paid, up 3% year-on-year).
- Streaming subscribers represented 67% of the Foxtel Group’s total subscribers (65% in Q2 FY23)
- Kayo Sports reached 1,466 million total subscribers, up 10% year-on-year (1.442 million paid, up 10% year-on-year)
- BINGE reached 1.477 million total subscribers (1.453 million paid subscribers)
Foxtel residential and commercial broadcast subscribers were 1.478 million
- Foxtel Residential subscribers reached 1.239 million
- Broadcast ARPU rose 1% to A$85 through a continued focus on Foxtel’s premium brand positioning.
- Residential churn is at 13.3%
Mr Thomson continued: “Kayo is benefitting from the impact of a fascinating season of both Aussie Rules football and Rugby League, and had its highest sequential quarterly net additions since inception, powered by both new customer growth and reactivations. We anticipate that recent price increases at Kayo and expected strong subscriber growth will continue to benefit the bottom line as both leading sports codes are drawing record audiences.”
“Foxtel continued to grow its streaming revenues in Q3 which now account for 29% of circulation and subscription revenues, up from 26% last year, which is helping to drive overall margins which rose from 14.3% to 14.5%.”
News Corp CFO Susan Panuccio added: “Revenues for the quarter were $455m, down 5% compared to the prior year. On an adjusted basis, revenues were down 1% versus the prior year.
“Streaming revenues accounted for over 29% of circulation and subscription revenues, versus 26% in the prior year.
“Total closing paid subscribers across the Foxtel Group were over 4.5m at quarter-end, down 1% from the prior year but up 5% versus the second quarter, as Foxtel transitions into the winter sport season.
“Total paid streaming subscribers were nearly 3.1m, increasing 3% versus the prior year, benefiting from a strong start of the AFL and NRL seasons.
“Kayo added 269,000 paying subscribers this quarter, the highest sequential quarterly net additions since its launch in Fiscal 2019, which is consistent with recent trends of customers returning post summer.
“Foxtel ended the quarter with over 1.2m residential broadcast subscribers, down 9% year-over-year. Broadcast churn was 13.3% versus 12.3% in the prior year, while Broadcast ARPU rose 2% to A$85, benefiting modestly from new pricing and packaging plans implemented in March.
“Segment EBITDA in the quarter of $66m was down only 3% versus the prior year despite the inclusion of $13m of costs related to Hubbl, which launched in early March and a 4% negative impact from foreign currency fluctuations. Adjusted Segment EBITDA increased 1%.”
On Outlook, Ms Panuccio said: “In Subscription Video Services, consistent with our message last quarter, we continue to expect modestly higher expenses for the full year and some softness in streaming revenues due to the first half which may impact full year profitability in local currency.”
Data and quotes are sourced from News Corp’s FY24 Q3 Earnings Announcement and Investor Briefing of 8 May 2024 (New York). Full details can be found at https://investors.newscorp.com/
[1] Adjusted to remove the effect of currency fluctuations. News Corp calculates the impact of foreign currency fluctuations for businesses reporting in currencies other than the US dollar by multiplying the results for each quarter in the current period by the difference between the average exchange rate for that quarter and the average exchange rate in effect during the corresponding quarter of the prior year and totalling the impact for all quarters in the current period.
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3% year on year growth in subs seems low
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Thanks, I assume Sport is a separate listing again, and what you’ve provided is only intended to be a sample and not a complete list.
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Head over heart is the Pointsbet betting show with Billy Brownless and Daisy Thomas.
Does On the Couch not air on Footy anymore?
Only showing Kayo’s year on year growth in the breakdown suggests the other two didn’t perform that well
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It still does. Foxtel’s online TV guide says the program airs at 7.30pm AEST on Mondays.
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Interesting times ahead for Binge.
With Max coming into AU in 2025 - and Para Global likely shutting down P+ or selling it or merging with peacock - will be interesting to see where Stan, Binge and P+ AU are in 12-18 months.
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