Netflix is set to sign up tens of thousands of Australians many of them disgruntled Foxtel customers according to research conducted by SmartHouse. Executives from the US subscription TV and movie Company are currently in Australia ahead of a launch tipped for early in 2015.
When SmartHouse recently asked Foxtel customers whether they would consider switching to a sub $25 a month Netflix service 49% said yes. The move could see tens of millions in revenue switch from Foxtel to Netflix.
When asked whether they would retail any part of the Foxtel subscription offering 80% said yes.
When asked what Foxtel services they would pay for, sport and the basic entry level package were the most nominated.
Currently Foxtel is charging $14 a month for a Full HD service, Netflix sources have said that Full HD will come free with all Netflix services.
Currently Foxtel and Telstra customers who are paying over $130 a month for the Companies Premium package service are not being offered any discounts. Instead Foxtel has lifted the cost of their Full HD services from $10 a month to $14 a month for these customers despite the fact that most TV’s are Full HD today along with the content being delivered to the TV’s by Foxtel.
Foxtel and Telstra refuse to say what the $14 Full HD charge is actually for.
According to the Financial Review Netflix senior director for programmatic buying Kathy O’Dowd, flew in to Sydney last week and is believed to be meeting with a number of media companies here to ascertain how it might buy broadcast TV and online advertising space to launch its service which is tipped to be rolled out in February 2015.
The new service which could be as low as $9.95 a month will compete directly with Foxtel’s Presto, Nine Entertainment’s new Stan service, it could also lead to the death of Quickflix who earlier this month sacked more staff due to cash flow issues.
Australian TV executives, who did not want to be named, said they were approached last month by Peter Vogel, the Australian CEO of Netflix’s global media agency, MEC, owned by WPP’s GroupM, to gauge their willingness to take ?advertising from Netflix.
All three networks are likely to oblige on a similar basis to the ads they run for pay TV operator, Foxtel. Foxtel’s Presto service is currently advertising its $9.99 monthly subscription offer across Seven’s TV schedule and Yahoo7. The Presto ads proclaim “all movies are ad-break free”.
The CEO of Yahoo7, Ed Harrison, said the online publisher would work with Netflix despite it being a competitor for viewers. “We don’t have a problem in principle with Netflix advertising with us, but the specific messaging would be a consideration,” he told the Financial Review.
MEC Australia’s Mr Vogel confirmed his company was working with Netflix globally.
