This was published 6 years ago
Foxtel chief confident of bowling over cricket viewers
By Carolyn Cummins & Jennifer Duke
Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delany is confident the pay-TV group will grow its sports subscribers after sealing the cricket TV rights, saying the network was already signing up 10,000 new customers a week.
With premium sports subscribers paying $39 per month, Mr Delany said the value proposition for subscribers had not changed in 15 years.
"We’re making 10,000 sales a week on that so we’re getting a great response," he told Fairfax Media. "The beauty of this deal is that over those summer months we’ve not only had customers leave us because of the sports, so now they’ll stay, but we can make some more customers."
According to industry figures, about a third of Australian households are signed up to the News Corporation-controlled Foxtel.
The pay-TV monopoly has, in recent times, been forced to reduce the cost of its subscription packages in a bid to attract more customers. Increased competition from streaming services such as Netflix and Stan - which is owned by Nine Entertainment Co and Fairfax Media - have made it difficult for Foxtel's to remain as profitable.
Like all subscription services, Foxtel also loses customers each week. The company has a churn rate of about14 per cent.
Mr Delany is focused on making technology one of the pillars of the business under his watch and the network has been been looking into a video streaming business offering so-called "a la carte" content access, including sports.
Under the new deal, Seven will broadcast a number of games, including 43 of the 59 Big Bash League matches and all home international Tests, including the 2021-22 Ashes.
The popular Big Bash League will move from Network Ten to its former home of Foxtel.
Women's Commonwealth Bank International matches and 23 Rebel Women's Big Bash League matches will be shown on Seven and Fox Spots.
A spokesman for the Commonwealth Bank said it would remain as a sponsor of Women's, indigenous and grassroots cricket.
The bank stopped its sponsorship of the men's game last year and Magellan Financial took up the rights. However Magellan withdrew following the ''ball tampering'' controversy.
Other key corporate partners of Cricket Australia, including Qantas, Bupa and Opus, all said it was ''too early to make a call'' on any sponsorship changes.
A spokesperson for Toyota Australia confirmed the company would remain a sponsor.