Australia’s streaming market is ‘packed to the rafters’, says Foxtel boss Patrick Delany

Foxtel chief executive officer Patrick Delany says the nation’s streaming market is overloaded with offerings but there is still room for growth.

30-09-21 – Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany at the Foxtel offices in Artarmon, Sydney. PIC Ryan Osland

Foxtel boss Patrick Delany says Australia’s streaming market is “packed to the rafters”, and providers must keep rolling out significant new offerings to keep consumers on board.

Speaking at APOS, Asia’s premier event for the media, telco and entertainment industry in Singapore last week, Mr Delany said “re-engagement” should be one of the central focus points for streaming platforms, given the competitiveness of the industry.

“We are really packed to the rafters (in Australia), every (international) streaming service is there, plus local streaming services,” Mr Delany told the conference.

He said it was inevitable that after the initial “exuberance of subscriber growth”, customer numbers had tapered off across the industry, and streamers must turn their attention to building revenues.

“It becomes a case of re-engagement and the number of engaged months,” he said.

“We see from all our services what works and what doesn’t work and you need a lot of content.

“Really, you need a big billboard every two to three weeks with a new hit to keep all the subscribers, otherwise you see the sea come in and the sea go straight back out.”

As for economic pressures on Foxtel services, Mr Delany said he hadn’t seen “any depression” in the growth to the company’s streaming platforms, Kayo and BINGE.

Foxtel (65 per cent owned by News Corp, publisher of The Australian) offers streaming services Kayo, BINGE, Foxtel Now and Flash, and across all of its platforms including broadcast, the company has 4.529 million subscribers – up 13 per cent on last year.

Total streaming subscribers are at 2.806 million, which is up 31 per cent on the previous year.

Mr Delany told the conference there had been a huge uptake in streaming services in Australia, including Kayo, which he said stood out globally.

“The thing that is really driving Kayo is it just looks and feels so different to Foxtel and it’s only $25 (per month) which is dirt cheap, to have 50 sports live in a streamed service is unique in the world,” he said.

Mr Delany also said BINGE had proved successful despite only being available in Australia since 2020 but its success was determined by “being at the mercy of what the shows are”.

International streaming service Netflix has continued to lose customers globally, and recently reported it lost one million subscribers for the second quarter in a row.