Foxtel CEO Richard Freudenstein used a launch event for Fox Sports upcoming broadcast of the V8 Supercars to update media buyers and advertisers on the results of the pay TV offering’s “radical” new pricing structure.
Freudenstein said: “I can’t talk in specifics but I can say we’re really bloody pleased about how it’s going. It’s gone better than we expected in terms of sales to new customers and in addition to the sales we’ve already received, the word of mouth that’s happening, the social media that’s happening around our pricing is just really, really positive. This will open up a huge audience for Foxtel, a huge audience for V8 fans.”
In November, Foxtel implemented its new pricing structure which saw the cost of a basic subscription almost halve. Freudenstein told the audience at the V8 launch event: “It was pretty radical to go from a basic price of $49 to a basic price of $25. For those of you who can’t do the math, that’s almost halving the price of our basic product.”
While new customers were offered the reduced pricing, Foxtel took a different approach with existing subscribers adding additional channels instead of extending a discount, although the option for them to move to the reduced price is available. “Very few of our customers are moving to the new packaging. Most of them are very happy with the packaging they get,” said Freudenstein, suggesting Foxtel isn’t seeing a dip in revenue from existing subscribers.
The good news doesn’t stop there with Freudenstein explaining that the viewership across the pay TV platform has also increased. “Just in the last month we’ve seen viewing share of Foxtel channels, compared to free-to-air channels, we’ve moved about 1.5% viewing share in Foxtel homes across to Foxtel channels because they have just got so many more channels to watch and they’re watching them. So from an advertiser perspective, it’s a really great story. As well as getting more customers, our customers are watching more television.”
