Kayo has been a shining light for Foxtel Group’s subscription video services in their latest quarterly report. News Corp’s global Q3 revenues remained largely flat, a 1 per cent decline to $2.42 billion (A$3.68 billion).
Foxtel Group – which includes Foxtel’s subscription broadcast service and streamers Kayo, BINGE and Foxtel Now – reported Q3 revenue of $455 million in the quarter, down by $22 million, or 5 per cent, compared with the prior year.
This was largely to do with the negative impact from foreign currency fluctuations, which accounted for $18 million of the decline. Adjusted revenues of $473 million decreased 1 per cent compared to the prior year.
In the first nine months of FY24, subscription video revenue is down 2 per cent to $1.41 billion – a solid result in a challenging and competitive TV and streaming market.
Overall, Foxtel Group’s total number of paid subscribers was down 1 per cent to 4,537,000. Its streaming subscription revenues represented approximately 29 per cent of total circulation and subscription revenues in the quarter, compared to 26 per cent in the prior year.
The sports streaming service Kayo grew its number of paid subscribers by 8 per cent to 1,442,000, which means it now has a similar level of subscribers to the entertainment streaming service BINGE, which lost 31,000 subscribers to 1,453,000.
BINGE revenues still increased due to a rise in pricing of the streaming service last October.
The number of households subscribing to Foxtel’s broadcasting service dropped by 9 per cent to 1,239,000.
Broadcast subscriber churn in the quarter was 13.3 per cent compared to 12.3 per cent in the prior year, which was partly driven by a broadcast price increase. The broadcast average revenue per person for the quarter increased 2 per cent year-on-year to $85.
News media continues slide
Elsewhere in the News Corp group, news media revenue was down 6 per cent year-on-year to $530 million, with News Corp Australia revenue down by 10 per cent. This reflects a weaker advertising market and also the negative impact of currency fluctuations. In the past nine months, news media revenue was 3 per cent down on FY23.
Advertising revenues decreased by 13 per cent ($28 million) compared to the prior year, due to lower print advertising at News Corp Australia and lower digital advertising due to a decline in traffic at some mastheads due to “platform related changes”.
Circulation and subscription revenues grew by $1 million compared to the prior year, primarily due to price increases and digital subscriber growth. Digital subscribers at News Corp Australia were 1,113,000 (966,000 for its news mastheads), compared to 1,043,000 (937,000 for news mastheads) in the previous year.
News Corp’s news businesses in the UK and US are faring better. News UK revenues were flat (albeit benefiting from currency fluctuations), while Dow Jones (a parent of the Wall Street Journal) grew revenues by 3 per cent.
The fastest growing part of the News Corp empire is REA Group, which grew quarterly revenue by 7 per cent to $388 million.
