The dedicated sport streaming service Kayo has achieved a significant milestone over the weekend, securing a customer base of 1 million paid subscribers for the first time.
Foxtel Group CEO Patrick Delany confirmed the achievement at a marketing event telling advertisers.
“It shows the power of a streaming service that aggregates over 50 sports, all in one place.”
It’s not a platform with one or two sports. It’s 24-7 with Australia’s most popular, iconic Tier One sports. Every game, of every round of the NRL. Every game, of every round of the AFL. The entire summer of cricket and everything in between. And the very best of motorsports, including the fabulous Australian Supercars.”
Kayo has built its customer base considerably since the commencement of this year’s AFL and NRL seasons due to a new partnership with Telstra.
The new arrangement has seen the telco push its Telstra Live Pass customer base onto the Kayo platform on a 12 month heavily discounted price of $5 or $15 per month.
Across the combined platforms of Foxtel and Kayo, the business is now boasting it has more than 2.2 million sports subscribers.
The growth in subscriber numbers comes at a time when there is increased competition in the sports streaming space with Stan’s move to secure Australian Rugby and Wimbledon/Roland-Garros tennis rights, while Amazon is also starting to show interest in Australian sport by securing domestic swimming competitions
Foxtel has responded this year by securing the Super Netball competition away from its long-time home at Nine. Negotiations for the next A-League broadcast deal are continuing with Foxtel, Stan, Optus and Amazon all understood to be contenders.
“We are very proud to add another Tier One sport to our sports platform next year with a ground-breaking deal to bring Super Netball to Foxtel and Kayo, including free games (delivered via Kayo) each week”, said Delany.
“In NRL, we have had an outstanding start to the 2021 season with average audiences for Rounds 1 to 8, up 13% year on year, making 2021 the number one rated NRL season ever for the Foxtel Group.”
“This year, the AFL has also performed strongly. Average audiences for the first seven rounds are up 17% on 2019 — ranking the 2021 season along 2020 as the highest rating AFL seasons ever for the Foxtel Group.”
“And we have delivered this to our advertising partners at a time free to air is struggling in live sport.”
Delany also used the marketing event to confirm Foxtel will deliver a new set-top box to its customers later this year.
TV Blackbox can reveal the new iQ5 device will be capable of delivering Ultra High-Definition content to customers via an internet connection or satellite. With the closure of the cable network looming, Foxtel has set itself the goal of moving its entire customer base to internet-connected devices over the next 18 months.