The future for Foxtel could be all about sport and access to global entertainment streaming apps, with the real probability now emerging the Australian media icon, which pioneered pay TV and streaming in Australia could be owned by UK global sports Company DAZN next year.
For Australian sports fans, the move could see more sport than ever before being made available to Australian viewers, including access to FIFA World Cup games and US sport.
According to sources the chief executive of DAZN Shay Segev, (seen below) has been in Australia this week in what is now being seen as the last part of a due diligence process of the News Corp controlled entity.
ChannelNews understands that he has met with both Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch who are both in Australia this week.
Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delany and Hilary Perchard, the executive in charge of Foxtel’s cable business and new operating platform Hubbl, flew to London earlier this week for talks with British broadcaster Sky according to the AFR.
We also believe that Segev met with Telstra who own 35% of the Foxtel Group.
Shay Segev, who previously ran London-listed sports betting giant Entain, has been leading the negotiations.
Two months ago, the global CEO of News Corp Robert Thomson announced during a financial briefing that “News Corp had put its stake in Foxtel up for sale and that there had been “third-party interest” in the group. That party appears to be DAZN who want to be in a position to capitalize on Australia’s love for sport.
In February 2023, DAZN announced that it had acquired the global rights to the NFL’s Game Pass service outside of the U.S. and China under a 10-year deal. Then this week the new FIFA Club World Cup scheduled for next year in the USA.
Their wide range of content includes top-flight football including the world’s most popular and watched competitions that include the English Premier League, Bundesliga J. League, LALIGA, Serie A, Ligue 1 and the UEFA Champions League, in addition to the biggest sports from around the world including Formula 1 which Foxtel already has, , NFL, NBA, MotoGP and the UFC.
The UK streaming Company was established in 2016 by Perform Group, a sports media a company majority-owned by Access Industries. ChannelNews understands that one of the core assets that DAZN is keen to own is KAYO with the real possibility that this platform could be rolled out globally.
Access Industries is the investment vehicle for Mr Len Blavatnik, who is worth more than $US40 billion ($63 billion) and is one of the world’s richest men.
He has poured billions of dollars into DAZN, which has been aggressively scooping up sports broadcast rights all over the world.
Recently the business that has 20 million paying subscribers and 60 million users paid $US1 billion deal to broadcast all 63 matches of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
A deal with Foxtel could add another 25% to their paid subscription base.
Reporting their latest financials in August 2024, Foxtel Group recently announced subscribers of 4.776 million (4.690 million paid), up 1% on year-on-year.
Total streaming subscribers, including Kayo Sports, BINGE and Foxtel Now reached 3.305 million (3.221 million paid), up 5% year-on-year.
Streaming subscribers represented approximately 69% of the Foxtel Group’s total subscriber (66% in Q4 FY23).
Kayo Sports reached 1.606 million subscribers (1.550 million paid), up 14%.
BINGE reached 1.552 million subscribers (1.529 million paid), up 1%.
Foxtel residential and commercial broadcast subscribers were 1.452 million.
Foxtel Residential subscribers reached 1.210 million.
In September, Fetch TV announced it would include the DAZN app on its platform however, this could be pulled unless Telstra who own 35% of Foxtel and 51% of Fetch cuts a deal for the app to stay on the struggling Fetch platform.
According to sources another option being discussed is that Optus winds their Optus Sports app into DAZN a move that could hurt arch rival Telstra and their majority ownership of Fetch TV.
Currently the biggest growth engine at Foxtel is Kayo with sport set to be one of the main attractions for streaming Companies in the future with entertainment left to Hollywood brands such as Disney, Warner, and Paramount Global and Netflix with DAZN taking a click of the subscribers and advertising who these networks attract via a relationship with the likes of Foxtel and DAZN.
During the past few years Foxtel has pushed hard into sports while steadily transforming from a pure cable TV player into a cable and streaming company.
The reason for this is that Sports has emerged as a major power within streaming services with the likes of Apple, Google and Amazon now cutting global sports deals.
The latest Entertainment on Demand (EoD) data released by Kantar reveals that sports viewership surged in Q3 2024 due to events including the Olympics.
Kantar says this highlights both the importance of sport to streaming services as well as the need for them to include interactive features to help them compete with traditional broadcasters.
The Olympics was the biggest reason for the recent growth of Stan which is owned by Nine Entertainment.
“Live sport is playing an increasingly important role in user retention as it brings in a substantial live viewership that’s rare for other on-demand content,” said Andrew Skerratt, Global Insights Director at Kantar Viewers.
He claims that viewers are excited by advanced technology like interactive statistics and immersive interfaces as well as the new technology that Foxtel has introduced to cricket streaming this in the Test match series between India and Australia.
“Streamers are now using this to cash in on new subscribers – sports fans are a highly engaged, valuable audience who exhibit stronger satisfaction and loyalty to their regular TV services. However, succeeding in sports on demand requires more than content rights. Leading services must invest in high-quality delivery, top-tier commentators, and interactive features to build a dedicated sports audience.”
Patrick Delany the CEO of Foxtel realised this several years ago when he introduced a new level of commentary around NRL and AFL both during and after games.
According to Kantar Ad-supported streaming saw significant growth this year, with AVOD subscriptions (ad-supported video on demand) increasing by 8% quarter-on-quarter and FAST users (free ad-supported streaming TV) growing by 2%.
