Foxtel who are under pressure from new IPTV services has announced a 17% increase in earnings for the six months to 31 December 2010 Profits for the high priced subscription TV provider was $278 Million, revenue for the half was $1,078m, a 9% increase on the $989m.
Subscriptions grew 9% despite new entrants. Foxtel said that big contributer was new HD channels.
Foxtel claimed that existing subscribers continue to benefit from their expanded HD offering to 20 dedicated HD channels including five HD Sports channels, six HD Movie channels and Australia’s first dedicated 3D demonstration channel. At 31 December 2010 almost 25% of all subscribers were benefiting from the Foxtel HD offering.
During the half, Foxtel delivered Australia’s most extensive coverage of any sporting event with six HD and standard definition channels providing full coverage of the Delhi 2010 XIX Commonwealth Games to ports subscribers however they have not said whether the exercise was profitable.
They dis say that content services delivered to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 had been been positive with steady growth.
On TuesdayFoxtel said that it has come to an agreement with Telstra on providing Foxtel via T-Box. This will see Foxtel providing 30 streaming channels, as well as over 300 titles, via on demand catch up television over Telstra’s T-Box service.
