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Foxtel may court Netflix and Stan for new STB
Australian pay-TV operator Foxtel is considering adding rival streaming services such as Netflix and Stan to its new set-top box.
Foxtel Great Australian Back OffFoxtel’s CEO Peter Tonagh told the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia that his company is working to provide users with what they want, including content delivered by other services, according to the Australian Financial Review.
“Our customers also want access to content that we don't own or don’t license ... If our customers want to have Netflix, then they’ll be able to have Netflix on our box,” Tonagh said.
“Initially the plan is to open to other devices via our recently announced ‘puck’ device, then to eventually have a similarly open platform for future versions of our iQ set-top box. We haven’t announced any times for either development just yet,” a Foxtel spokesman told Rapid TV News.
It is one of a number of moves Foxtel is making to ensure its own streaming service is more attractive to users in the wake of the Australian launch of global subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service Netflix and local digital platform Stan. These include a new flexible pricing model and expanded content rights deal with Game of Thrones producer, HBO.
Long dominant in Australia’s pay-TV arena, Foxtel has seen steady revenue growth during the last few years but has recently struggled to increase its penetration, according to Budde Communications. “The distribution advantage held by Foxtel is slipping away as the NBN [National Broadband Network] becomes built out over a greater number of premises, so expanding the reach of capable broadband infrastructure which enables subscribers to access OTT and IPTV content,” it warned in a recent report.
Budde Communications added that it “remains pessimistic about the current commercial video streaming business models of most of the players [in Australia]. We predict that consolidation will have to happen”.
