There’s an old adage in sport that athletes should stay in their lane; focus on what they’re good at, practice, practice, practice; improve incrementally; and eventually they’ll rise to the very top. Australia’s leading sports broadcaster, Foxtel, doesn’t like staying in its lane, but still excels at everything it is good at.
Any media company that stands still loses in a disruptive and rapidly evolving media landscape, and Foxtel knows this all too well. When linear TV was in structural decline, Foxtel was the quickest to transition to a streaming-first future with Kayo Sports and BINGE quickly becoming front and centre of its content, advertiser, and user experience.
Now, with the backing of new owners in global streaming giant DAZN, Foxtel is introducing a raft of new innovations in gaming, retail media, branded content, e-commerce, second screen shopping, ad formats and more, that it hopes will steal a march on its rivals in 2026.
And it appears that media buyers are ready to ‘Enter the Game’ – as Foxtel themed its upfront extravaganza.
“To win in today’s media market, you need it all, the sport, the entertainment, the technology, the partnerships, but most importantly, the guts,” Foxtel Media chief executive Mark Frain said at the company’s sports-themed upfront event at the White Bay Power Station last night.
“(You need) the guts to change the status quo, and the drive to keep moving when everyone else is standing still. It’s a great game we play. The rules keep shifting. The players keep morphing. The speed of the game only gets faster. It’s a constant battle for attention, for engagement, for real outcomes for your business. But that’s what tonight is about, how we win together.
“In 2026, we’re not just going to step it up, we’re going to charge ahead… and tonight we’ll show you how we’re unlocking real innovation and moving faster than ever before.”
Media buyers praised Foxtel’s confidence, premium content offering—particularly in sport—as well as new innovations in gaming, retail media and advertising.
One senior industry leader, who spoke to B&T under the condition of anonymity, said that Foxtel’s upfront oozed confidence and that the company is a true pioneer of innovation in this market, never scared to take risks to improve the advertiser and user experience.
Others found the event intimate, charming and refreshing by including some fresh faces in Australian Bake Off hosts Tom Walker and Natalie Tran as well as Victorian sales manager Roie Toogoo and Perth sales director Karen Papalia.
An agency boss told B&T Foxtel had nailed the brief in providing the right balance of content, innovations, research, entertainment, evidence of growth across audiences and client outcomes, as well as clearly spelling out that they had delivered on the five promises they made for 2025.
On the entertainment front, guests were treated to a range of sports arcade games such as F1 driving simulators, an AFL simulator game powered, apparently, by artificial intelligence, an indoor cricket net (and Brendan Julian scaring a few guests with some chin music), basketball shoot-outs and a range of delicious canapes and drinks, including Adam Gilchrist’s El Arquero tequila cocktails.
‘A bold statement’
MAGNA head of investment Janice Morgan described the evening as “a really bold statement”.
“It was very bold, very brash and they’re positioning themselves as our true, premium partners. We really look forward to what’s coming next year,” she said.
EssenceMediacom implementation and activation group director Patrick Fakiye was effusive in his praise.
“Foxtel is in a great spot,” he said. “They are the sports king in Australia. Sport is culture, and they own a lot of it, they have strong dramas, and their measurement solution with Video Future Collective is world game changing. Their business is ripe for growth in 2026.”
Zenith Media chief investment officer Elizabeth Baker also found the event broadly positive.
“They really reinforce the premium nature of the content, the stickiness of audiences to that content, and the ability to marry that up with data, proof of outcomes and new ways for advertising to get into that content,” she said.
“They are always thinking about the customer and the user experience, and for me, that is really positive.”
Eye-catching innovations
Foxtel made a raft of announcements that caught the eye. They plan to enter gaming advertising in a partnership with Livewire, have launched a new retail media offering (Retail Plus+) with Chemist Warehouse as a foundation partner, and will roll out a new branded content business (Narrative).
There are also new ad formats (L-Bar and Pause ads), second screen shoppable experiences in partnership with allt.tv, a refreshed user interface for Kayo Sports and BINGE, and even an AI powered assistant for viewers called Kayo Buddy.
Media buyers speaking B&T found the gaming and retail media proposition the most appealing to clients, but also welcomed new advertising formats and shoppable experiences.
“The expansion into gaming, I can see a lot of our clients will be really interested in seeing what that opportunity could deliver them,” said Baker, who was this year’s B&T Women in Media Planner/Buyer of the Year. “I loved the research part (with Toby Dewar, Karen Nelson-Field and Craig Service). What was really interesting is the notion of slow decay, streaming having high attention and the least wastage really resonated with me.”
Morgan is also a fan of Foxtel switching on to gaming advertising, an area she believes the Australian market hasn’t properly explored even though 16.8 million Australians visited a gaming platform in the past year.
“That could be another big growth area for Foxtel. Our clients and brands will want to explore that opportunity so watch out for that next year,” she said.
For EssenceMediacom’s Fakiye, Foxtel’s retail media offering is what he found most impressive.
“The ability for us to integrate our brands into their shows and measure the outcomes is deeply important,” he said.
“Also the new ad formats that they’ve got in the L shape and pause ads, just integrating your brand within the best content is super important. I want to see what that solus displacement looks like. It could be a really attentive format just before play and maximising your audience.”
Atomic 212° national trading lead Jay Malig said that he would like to learn more about Retail Plus+ and the gaming opportunity.
The announcements that caught his eye were the Narratv Luxury Escapes branded content offering—a lifestyle TV series fronted by Cameron Daddo that fully integrates Luxury Escapes into the content— and the second screen experience.
“The partnership with altt.tv, where the TV content combines with smartphone apps in real time looks like an amazing e-commerce opportunity. That’s probably the most seamless example of that shoppable experience I’ve seen from TV so far,” he said.
Apocalypse Now
All media buyers praised Foxtel’s stellar calendar of sport that provides viewers and advertisers with more NRL, AFL, cricket, netball and motorsports than any other TV network in Australia.
Foxtel’s upfront kicked off with sports, showcasing remarkable audience growth across the board. This included a 3 per cent lift in NRL (15 per cent up on Kayo); 22-29 per cent audience increases for AFL on Thursday, Friday and Saturday; a 21 per cent lift in Super Netball; and the biggest summer of cricket line up in recent memory with a white ball series against India and the Ashes in a couple of months.
This has helped drive Kayo Sports subs up by 20 per cent in the past year, and viewing time up by 82 per cent in the past two years.
“The scale that they have unlocks results, and I think you can see that through the strength of their Kayo audiences year on year, particularly with the AFL, some of those numbers were massive,” Fakiye said.
Morgan praised Foxtel’s commitment to sport and its investment in women’s sport, which she believes will be a growth area for Foxtel.
On the drama and entertainment front, there were a number of shows that appealed, including new productions Run, The Postcard Bandit and another season of Colin From Accounts.
There was one show that caught media buyers’ attention, Apocalypse. Created in partnership with the UK’s Channel 4, Apocalypse is a social experiment that sees ordinary people from Australia and the UK dropped into a post-apocalyptic abandoned city armed with nothing but their wits and the clothes on their backs.
Malig perhaps described it best: “It gave me vibes as a cross between The Walking Dead and Alone. I love Alone and I think this might potentially be a new hit for them.”
Morgan and Baker both agree.
“I got a bit of the shivers just thinking about it,” Baker quipped.
When B&T asked how many days she would survive in Apocalypse, she held up a ‘zero’ hand signal.
“I’m barely surviving not wearing heels,” she added while pointing to her white trainers.
What did Foxtel miss?
Although Foxtel’s presentation ticked most boxes, there were a couple of areas that media agency bosses would have liked addressed, even though the length of the presentation was more than sufficient.
In April, DAZN concluded its acquisition of Foxtel from previous owners News Corp and Telstra, and the market is still waiting to see more details about what this means.
“I would like to see a bit more about the DAZN integration and what that will unlock, even though I appreciate it’s still early days,” Fakiye said.
This view was shared by several other media agency leaders speaking to B&T in the after party.
More may become apparent soon. A notable absentee from Foxtel’s upfront was CEO Patrick Delany, who videoed in from London, where he was attending a DAZN board meeting.
Zenith’s Baker wanted a bit more detail about Foxtel’s measurement, which she said has been a big adjustment for the market, while Mahig would like more details about the Video Futures Collective and its strategic direction.
One message that pleased Baker was Foxtel’s pledge that it wants to “unify” the industry and collaborate with its free to air rivals.
“That was definitely music to my ears to hear that finally we’re getting some greater collaboration between Seven, Nine, Paramount and themselves around how they work together more closely,” she said.
What that collaboration looks like remains to be seen, but Frain and his Foxtel team’s explosive performance drummed up plenty of support, leaving the market clear and confident about who they are, and their ambitions to conquer 2026 and beyond.
