Kayo, Binge kick goals as Foxtel cash streams

Foxtel boss Patrick Delany says the company’s successful streaming services — namely Kayo Sports and entertainment platform Binge — are more than offsetting any losses.

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Foxtel boss Patrick Delany says the company’s successful streaming services — namely Kayo Sports and entertainment platform Binge — are more than offsetting any losses incurred by other parts of the business.

“Any revenue we are losing on the traditional pay TV side is being more than backfilled from the streaming side,” Mr Delany told Sky News Australia on Sunday.

“We’ve done a pretty good job at creating new value.”

Last Thursday, Mr Delany hosted the company’s inaugural day, during which he outlined an ambitious growth strategy targeting five million subscribers in the next three years, as the media major transitions to a streaming-led future.

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On Sunday, Mr Delany said Foxtel’s growth had led to a culture of fearlessness, as the ­harnessing of the latest technologies — its recently released iQ5 set-top box does not require any cabling or satellites — had made its product available to a wider cross-section of the Australian community than was previously possible.

“With Foxtel we were bound by satellites and cables, and we were also bound by affordability,” Mr Delany said.

“Our burden of the past, which was not having huge ­penetration, is now an opportunity because we can use our content and modern technology to get to the other 75 per cent of Australia.

“The NBN has been a fabulous opportunity for us.”

Mr Delany said the company had also shown that it was open to partnering with other streaming services to ensure Foxtel customers had the best content available to them.

“We’ve got the play through Binge and Kayo direct and we’ve also got a play through Foxtel, where we can air their content on our behalf,” he said.

“But we fearlessly love giving our customers Netflix and all the other apps, including Paramount Plus.”

Mr Delany again addressed the speculation about a possible public float of the company in the first half of 2022, reiterating that it’s a “matter for our shareholders”.

News Corp (publisher of The Australian) owns 65 per cent of Foxtel; the remaining 35 per cent is owned by Telstra.

Following Thursday’s strategy day, Macquarie’s analysts noted that Foxtel’s aspirations of reaching $3 billion in annual revenue within the next three years “was better than our expectations, as we had previously expected the inflection to occur in FY27.”