Talking Footy

Kayo Sports subscriber fall adds to Delany's woes at Foxtel
John McDuling
National Business Editor
February 7, 2020

Two years have passed since Patrick Delany was handed a poisoned chalice and made chief executive at Foxtel. You'd have to think Delany wasn't raising a toast upon achieving that milestone. Because the outlook still looks tough for the Murdoch-controlled pay-TV provider.

News Corp's quarterly results released on Friday morning (AEDT) were well-received by investors, with the company's ASX-listed shares rising more than 2 per cent. But scratch beneath the surface and the signs in Australia and particularly within Foxtel were less encouraging for the global media giant.


Foxtel chief Patrick Delany. CREDIT:GETTY

The result showed an alarming drop in subscribers for Kayo Sports - the streaming platform championed by Delany and Foxtel's presumed growth driver. Kayo's subscriber base fell to 350,0000 after hitting 402,000 in November. That is not how new growth products are supposed to perform.

News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson cited the weak summer cricket schedule and the end of the Rugby World Cup tournament as factors underpinning the decline. Neither will be particularly comforting for Delany, an affable and well-liked executive.

Delany was instrumental in Foxtel securing cricket rights in 2018 as part of a landmark deal with Kerry Stokes' Seven West Media, which involved paying $1.2 billion over six years for the rights to air summer Tests, one-dayers and the Big Bash League.

Test cricket won't always be as unappealing as it was this past summer - the next two seasons feature the drawcards of India and then The Ashes series against England. But the waning popularity of the BBL will no doubt be setting off alarm bells inside Holt Street. Put simply, it looks as if both sides overpaid for rights that were not exclusive.

Put simply, it looks as if both sides overpaid for rights that were not exclusive.
And, if people did sign up to Kayo for the Rugby World Cup, only to drop the service once it finished in November, that could also prove awkward. It would demonstrate an audience still exists for the struggling code in Australia, although admittedly for its once-every-four years centrepiece tournament, which is a very different proposition to Super Rugby and Wallabies Tests that are about to be auctioned.

Foxtel's impasse with Rugby Australia over its next broadcast rights deal, which first surfaced in these pages back in November, escalated dramatically this week.

Delany and Foxtel are bitterly upset with RA for taking rights to the code to a public tender for the first time in 25 years.

But the mass criticism levelled at RA and its chief executive Raelene Castle, not to mention mooted rival bidder Optus in News Corp papers, has raised eyebrows in both media and rugby circles.

It came across as desperate and defensive. Whether the pay-TV player truly walks away from the process remains to be seen.

Delany is trying to engineer an epic turnaround at Foxtel. The launch of a new entertainment streaming platform in the coming months will be crucial.

One of the toughest jobs in Australian media is now looking even tougher.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/compani ... 53yso.html

pussycat wrote: ↑Sun Feb 09, 2020 9:40 am

Most of the drop would be because many league/AFL fans cancel there subscription over the off months. I know I do.

Beaussie wrote: ↑Sun Feb 09, 2020 11:22 am

pussycat wrote: ↑Sun Feb 09, 2020 9:40 am

Most of the drop would be because many league/AFL fans cancel there subscription over the off months. I know I do.

But isn't cricket meant to attract and maintain subscribers throughout the summer?

Soccer with the A-League played in summer is not even relevant me thinks.