Local content still reigns supreme on Australian pay TV

Despite having access to endless amounts of content from all over the world, Foxtel executive Amanda Laing says locally-made content still reigns supreme.

Amanda Laing, Foxtel’s chief commercial and content officer. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

Despite having access to endless amounts of content from all over the world, Foxtel executive Amanda Laing says locally-made content still reigns supreme.

With the coronavirus pandemic triggering renewed calls for quotas to be considered as a way to support locally made ­productions, they may not be necessary, with viewers already voting with their remotes.

Ms Laing, Foxtel’s chief commercial and content officer, last week told an international virtual conference on the future of pay-TV that locally-made ­productions already accounted for 50 to 70 per cent of the top ten shows on Foxtel’s streaming platforms, with no quotas in place for streaming services.

“Australians love local stories,” she said. “This is illustrated by the fact that the local offices of global streamers are now actively out there commissioning local content.

“Even in years where we’ve had Game of Thrones, The ­Undoing … big, meaty, global phenomenon and behemoth franchises, and yet our local production would be up there.”

Because of an insatiable demand for Australian content, Ms Laing hinted at Foxtel’s plans to produce more shows — both scripted and ­unscripted — on home soil: “It’s not going to stop because it absolutely drives acquisition and attention.”

Ms Laing outlined sport as a key stablemate for the brand, but also said lifestyle was a genre the company has ­identified as an area that Australians can’t get enough of. Landmark research by Foxtel found that audiences will be ­looking for more lifestyle-related content when choosing what to watch, which was a trend which started before Covid-19 locked people up in their homes, she said.

“The research looked into what does the home mean, and where are they going to spend their money … and it found these key themes were there even before Covid-19, and will be there after.”

While production of lifestyle content has traditionally been done by free-to-air channels, Ms Laing said it had always been a strength for Foxtel: “We’re very famous for our lifestyle brands, the personalities we’ve found and launched and that’s not going to change.”

Streaming giants’ competition for eyeballs could be even tougher with the rise of YouTube carving out its own spot in the market, the virtual conference heard.

Fetch TV CEO Scott Lorson told a panel that YouTube will play a bigger role in the pay-TV market in the future and that situation “should get more commentary than it does … YouTube is making huge inroads”.

Originally published as Local content still reigns supreme on Australian pay TV