Customers unhappy as Foxtel increases pricing for Sport

Foxtel has been copping plenty of criticism this week from subscribers after it confirmed the price of its basic sports package would rise to $29.

From the 1st of February, customers will be required to pay an additional $4 to access Sport on Foxtel, a spokesperson for the company telling DeciderTV the change was necessary,

“due to a number of factors, partly new channels, partly because sports rights generally are increasing.”

Foxtel added 3 beIN Sports and 3 EPL Club channels to the sports package in 2016 after the company was criticised for losing the broadcast rights for the English Premier League to Optus.

Foxtel’s costs will rise in 2017 as expensive new broadcast deals for the AFL and NRL commence. A new NRL focused channel Fox League will commence early in 2017, this channel will replace one of the existing Fox Sports channels.

Fox Sports is also expected to make a considerable investment to secure A-League and Cricket broadcast rights.

Foxtel has been under intense pressure to keep prices low since the introduction of streaming competitors Stan, Netflix, and Amazon. The company lowered the price of its basic package in 2015 to $25 for cable/satellite customers. It has also recently announced new pricing packages for Foxtel Play.

However, to keep costs low the company has also needed to cut underperforming services, most recently the TCM movie channel was removed.

Foxtel has also been criticised for continuing to charge cable/satellite customers an additional $10 fee to access HD content.

Last week it was announced Foxtel would allow Foxtel Play subscribers to access HD content via the Telstra TV device for no additional cost. Support for HD viewing via more internet devices will be added in 2017.

When asked if Foxtel would remove the $10 HD fee for cable/satellite customers, a spokesperson for Foxtel told DeciderTV,

“that is something we have under review.”