Foxtel Group has marked its seventh successive quarter of growth, with a 2% increment in adjusted revenue in the September quarter compared to last year.
The modest rise in subscription video service segment revenues, at 1%, comes amidst a challenging fiscal landscape.
The total number of subscribers for Foxtel Group is now reported at 4.646 million, with a significant majority of 4.573 million being paying customers. Streaming services have witnessed a boom, with Kayo Sports, BINGE, and Foxtel Now claiming 67% of the subscriber base — a robust year-on-year surge of 8% to 3.013 million paid users.
In a breakdown of individual services, Kayo saw an 11% rise to 1.411 million subscribers. BINGE experienced a 4% increase to 1.506 million subscribers, while Foxtel Now observed a decline, with subscribers dropping by 15% to 167,000. The report indicates a slump in residential and commercial subscriptions by 7%, settling at 1.543 million.
Foxtel once again declined to provide any subscriber numbers for its standalone news streaming service Flash with the service now described as a ‘niche product’.
Despite the revenue uptick, the company reported a downturn in EBITDA by 13% from the previous year, attributed to increased sports broadcasting rights outlays and currency exchange volatility. Robert Thomson, News Corp chief, remained optimistic about the company’s strategic direction.
“We have no doubt that our streaming strategy has been successful at a time when other companies in other markets are struggling,” he stated.
Thomson highlighted the synergistic nature of Foxtel’s service offerings, underscoring an 8% growth in paid streaming subscriptions and a drop in broadcast churn from 14.2% to 11.4%. He announced the impending launch of Hubbl, a new streaming aggregation platform expected to revolutionize content discovery for users.
“But the team at Foxtel Group is far from complacent, and so we are on the cusp of launching our new streaming aggregation product, Hubbl, which will greatly simplify the search for fascinating entertainment and sports, from our own companies and from those of our cherished partners, to the benefit of all, in particular, to the benefit of viewers,” said Thomson.
Susan Panuccio, News Corp CFO, reflected on the financials, noting streaming’s growing contribution to the revenue mix.
“Streaming revenues accounted for 30 percent of circulation and subscription revenues, versus 25 percent in the prior year and again more than offset broadcast revenue declines benefiting from both a year-over-year increase in subscribers and price rises at Kayo and BINGE,” she elucidated.
Closing the quarter with nearly 4.6 million paid subscribers, the Foxtel Group has charted a 2% year-over-year increase. The total paid streaming base stands at three million, marking an 8% rise from the previous year. However, subscriber counts suffered a sequential dip, attributed to reduced production at BINGE due to Hollywood strikes and the conclusion of Winter sports, impacting Kayo.
The quarter concluded with over 1.3 million residential broadcast subscribers, a 9% decrease from the prior year. Yet, broadcast churn has improved, and Broadcast ARPU has increased by 3% to over A$85, partly due to a price increase for non-platinum subscribers in July.
The quarter’s Segment EBITDA stood at $93 million, a 16% decline from the previous year, predominantly driven by sports rights cost escalations. Despite this, Panuccio confirmed the completion of a debt refinancing initiative, securing a new A$1.2 billion credit facility, signalling a strong trajectory for future loan repayments.
“We completed the debt refinancing in the first quarter, which included securing a new A$1.2 billion credit facility. As we said last quarter, given the improved performance and the completion of the refinancing, this provides a pathway for repayment of our shareholder loans,” Panuccio concluded.
I wish they would offer a Binge & Kayo bundle deal!
They do,..its called Foxtel.
Not all content featured on Binge & Kayo is available on Foxtel, and if it is, not all of it is available “on demand” as it is on Binge and Kayo, so not the same.
ALL the content is available, whether ‘live’ or streaming. Can you please specify what is on Binge/ Kayo that ISN’T on Foxtel Sat/IP?
Hi Jason – As Robert said, sometimes there is BINGE content that gets premiere priority, with it appearing on the Foxtel platform (scheduled or on-demand) at a later time. I can’t think of any sport content on KAYO that isn’t on Foxtel, though in both cases there can be content that is only available on-demand on Foxtel (i.e. isn’t scheduled for linear broadcast) when on BINGE or KAYO.
@Steve Molk – there is no content that isn’t first available on the FOXTEL platform as well. I think you are misunderstanding what a BINGE “premiere” is. I have found that all premieres are always available at the same time as parent company FOXTEL (Linear, streaming or on-demand) or earlier. For example, BOOKIE “premieres” on BINGE in 2 days time (30/11). This according to the press release. BUT, I can now stream Ep.1 on Foxtel. Please provide a specific example or current specific example of programs, events, movies that has BINGE “priority”?
they all suck we dont pay to be bombarded with add kayo is the worst they just dont give a shit you are watching sport and put ads on while sports are going mma and f1 are shocking with ads filling in-between every mma round so you never get the full fight or hear what the corners or commentators have to say f1 they put ads in the racing you come back and places have changes it so shit
My son has Kayo reckon it’s shit .
Watch Bathurst at my place I have free to air ,I won’t pay over _1500, dollars a year to murdock .
He pulled out his phone he dad check this out it’s supposed to be live …it was about ten minutes behind.
There is no such thing as “live”. By the time the signal is sent from the mobile control room to sat uplink, then downlink, then to network link and then to factor in the IP transmission time,..you will ALWAYS have a delay. If you want “live”, you have to be there in person. I will continue to pay for the sat feed via Foxtel, as its the most consistent 4k signal. My only gripe is the lack of 4k content compared to the US and EU. It’s time for Foxtel to remove the +2 channels, add more 4k only channels and update the iQ to an iQ6 based on the Sky UK box. Its pretty clear that the iQ5 was a downgrade compared to the iQ4k. FF speed is lower and recording options (in terms of recordings at once) are down compared to the iQ4k.
Hi Jason – 10-15 sec delay for processing, etc, is as live as any TV gets. Live is live – this is semantics.
can binge ad more new channels over from foxtel please would be amazing