FOXTEL

Synopsis

FOXTEL is the largest subscription television provider in Australia, offering over 200 viewing channels. National coverage was secured in 2012 following the company’s acquisition of AUSTAR. Company ownership is equally divided between Telstra and News Corporation, each with a 50% stake. News Corporation secured the Consolidated Media Holdings 25% holding in late 2012.

The subscription TV (STV) industry as a whole in Australia has had to deal with increased digital TV coverage areas and the subsequent growth in the number of FTA channels, as well as more widespread Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) services from the growing availability of faster broadband services. More than 2.7 million homes had an STV service from FOXTEL by 2017.

Foxtel will continue to see declining ARPU as the proportion of its pay TV customers decline due to the migration to other Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) providers which have much lower ARPU.

FOXTEL has also moved into the SVOD arena in an effort to increase subscriber availability options. Although there has been steady growth in subscription TV services, in coming years customer viewing on the platform will have been greatly changed following the launch of services by OTT providers such as Stan and Netflix as well as SVoD options being marketed by FTA broadcasters.

The launch of a bundled service of broadband, telephony and STV via the NBN presents a major shift in the services that the company can provide for the consumer market. BuddeComm sees this as an important catch-up move to compete with the other ISPs that also provide bundled services.

This report provides an overview of FOXTEL, including financial data for FY2017, market trends, operational overviews and analysis.

Companies covered in this report include:

FOXTEL, AUSTAR, Optus, News Corporation, Telstra