Foxtel boosts BINGE platform with sport, news and music

Foxtel’s entertainment streaming platform BINGE is expanding, adding live sport, news, music and lifestyle content to its slate.

Foxtel Media CEO Mark Frain. Picture: John Feder

Foxtel’s entertainment streaming platform BINGE is expanding, adding live sport, news, music and lifestyle content to its slate, in addition to its existing local and international TV shows and ­movies.

The dramatic transformation of the four-year-old streaming service comes just two months after News Corp global chief executive Robert Thomson said the soaring growth of the Foxtel Group – and specifically, its key assets of BINGE and the sports-led streaming platform Kayo – had attracted interest from potential buyers.

Foxtel is 65 per cent-owned by News Corp (publisher of The Australian). The changes to BINGE was announced at Foxtel’s annual “upfront” event in Sydney on Thursday night, with the chief executive of BINGE and Kayo Sports, Julian Ogrin, saying the company was “supercharging” the platform.

“We know BINGE viewers are also sports fans so we’re changing the streaming game and bringing the best of Kayo Sports – live and on demand – to BINGE subscribers. And we’re also making live and on demand news available and adding thousands of hours of lifestyle content to the platform too,” Mr Ogrin said.

BINGE and Kayo Sports CEO Julian Ogrin. Picture: Britta Campion

The new-look BINGE will launch with the AFLW grand final on November 30 and the WBBL grand final on December 1.

During the NRL and AFL seasons, live games will be simulcast, ad-free, on BINGE on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.

It was also announced on Thursday that Foxtel will launch a new audience measurement system – independent of industry surveyor OzTAM – that will deliver greater transparency for advertisers seeking to reach their target audience.

The initiative, in partnership with global research company Kantar Media, will allow the daily release of viewing data across all of Foxtel’s platforms. At present, audience figures for streaming services in Australia are not disclosed, with OzTAM, the industry’s existing ratings mea­surement system, incorporating free-to-air and BVOD (broadcast video on demand) data only.

Foxtel Media CEO Mark Frain said it was important for the company’s agency partners to “get a read” on how content had performed on all of its platforms.

“For the first time in Foxtel’s history, all of our data will be in the one place, privacy-compliant, with a third party global research company,” Mr Frain said. “It’s really about getting our own house in order. It’s just a more stable, robust way to measure our content and of course we want to make sure our content and audiences are measured accurately. We previously felt we were being unrepresented in many (audience measurement) areas … now we have the ability to supply accurate information to agencies.”

Asked about the progress of the potential sale of Foxtel, a company spokesman said: “It is a matter for the shareholders.”