Broadcast options for Australian Rugby

[Adam84]

What Foxtel charges many of its set top box owners is quite frankly disgusting, for the premium packs with a second set top box it’s easily to sit in the $150/month price range

but its the older generations who are too lazy to change/don’t realise how much cheaper the alternatives are/don’t understand the streaming technology.

my parents sat in the that category and as they shifted from work to retirement pension/super streams, we managed to convince them to try SVOD services for a fraction of Foxtel instead, and they haven’t looked back.

 

[liquor box]

What Foxtel charges many of its set top box owners is quite frankly disgusting, for the premium packs with a second set top box it’s easily to sit in the $150/month price range

but its the older generations who are too lazy to change/don’t realise how much cheaper the alternatives are/don’t understand the streaming technology.

my parents sat in the that category and as they shifted from work to retirement pension/super streams, we managed to convince them to try SVOD services for a fraction of Foxtel instead, and they haven’t looked back.

I pay about $70 for foxtel with a box.

My wife likes it and I could pretty do without it if ESPN was available elsewhere

 

[PhilClinton]

I read somewhere recently that Paramount+ will be leaving Australia soon and their catalog being negotiated between Nine and Foxtel.

 

[PhilClinton]

Has anyone come into contact with these new illegal streaming services lately? They seem to be a topic of discussion in my circles at the moment and I’ve seen a number of market stalls flogging them which is interesting.

Essentially $100 for an Amazon fire stick which has been loaded with some app, take it home and plug it into your smart tv, subscribe to the service for another $100 for the year (all these costs are rough as I don’t actually know). You then have access to every streaming service currently around the world, by that I don’t mean people have downloaded shows, but its actually streaming like Stan sports, Kayo, pay per view fights, Aussie and American Netflix etc.

I have no doubt these have been around for ages but they seem to be leaking into mainstream discussions due to the overall cost of needing multiple services.

 

[Adam84]

Has anyone come into contact with these new illegal streaming services lately? They seem to be a topic of discussion in my circles at the moment and I’ve seen a number of market stalls flogging them which is interesting.

Essentially $100 for an Amazon fire stick which has been loaded with some app, take it home and plug it into your smart tv, subscribe to the service for another $100 for the year (all these costs are rough as I don’t actually know). You then have access to every streaming service currently around the world, by that I don’t mean people have downloaded shows, but its actually streaming like Stan sports, Kayo, pay per view fights, Aussie and American Netflix etc.

I have no doubt these have been around for ages but they seem to be leaking into mainstream discussions due to the overall cost of needing multiple services.

Ask whether you’re comfortable providing credit card details to a group which provides an illegal service and has no consumer protection. It’s not a matter of ‘if’ your credit card details get on-sold, it’s a matter of ‘when’. That been said there are ways to protect yourself in this area, but the effort factor starts extrapolating.

Vulnerabilities will always exist within SVOD services that people will seek to exploit and sell, happens every pay-per-view event. I wouldn’t be paying for a device though, it only takes an update for these loopholes to be closed just when you want it. You’ll also never receive the same level of functionality/features/4k & HD quality that you get direct through the SVOD service.

 

[PhilClinton]

Ask whether you’re comfortable providing credit card details to a group which provides an illegal service and has no consumer protection. It’s not a matter of ‘if’ your credit card details get on-sold, it’s a matter of ‘when’. That been said there are ways to protect yourself in this area, but the effort factor starts extrapolating.

Vulnerabilities will always exist within SVOD services that people will seek to exploit and sell, happens every pay-per-view event. I wouldn’t be paying for a device though, it only takes an update for these loopholes to be closed just when you want it. You’ll also never receive the same level of functionality/features/4k & HD quality that you get direct through the SVOD service.

Yeh I personally won't be doing it but it definitely seems to be infiltrating more homes than just the young share houses who can't be bothered paying for services.

Re your comment about credit card details, absolutely, my only input to friends who've mentioned about doing this is to buy a prepaid visa from the post office and don't use your actual cards. I've always done the same when buying from websites like Temu and Aliexpress as well.

 

[Ignoto]

Phil - putting that aside. From what I've read, these are jailbroken Amazon firesticks preloaded with whatever.

So even if you use a debit credit card, you're placing on your home network a device that has already been compromised and is speaking directly to the internet. While it's possible to put these on separate vlans, there's a still a chance for things to hope around.

I'd suggest that anyone who wants to watch this illegally to use streams and not have a compromised device. But in saying that, unless you get a private stream you run the risk of having the experience ruined I.e. Owners of streams deliberately cut the stream when a goal etc happens as it forces everyone to refresh and the stream operator gets another set of ad payments.

 

[JRugby2]

Foxtel has 3.1 million streaming subscribers across Kayo, Binge and Foxtel Now. But those streaming customers each add very little revenue. They make up 66 per cent of Foxtel’s “customer base”, but just 23 per cent of its revenue. Foxtel’s 1.5 million set-top box customers contribute 63 per cent of its revenue.
View attachment 18685

Some time next year, likely before the end of March, it is expected that Warner Bros Discovery will launch its own streaming platform, Max, in Australia – stripping Foxtel and Binge of immensely valuable HBO content such as Succession, Game of Thrones and Euphoria. Likewise, wrestling entertainment empire WWE, also on Binge, signed a $US5 billion ($7.8 billion) global deal with Netflix that the US streamer says will soon include Australia. Binge’s managing director, Amanda Laing, has resigned.

Macquarie analysts estimate Kayo generated $454 million in revenue for the group last year, compared with $1.7 billion from traditional Foxtel customers. The price of the Kayo Basic product jumped 17 per cent to $35 in February, although those kinds of increases are hard to pull off repeatedly.

If price is one lever Foxtel can pull, cutting costs via a major restructure is another. Since the end of the 2020 financial year, Foxtel has slashed more than 28 per cent of staff, reducing employees from 2177 to 1558, according to its corporate filings. It has cut some engineering staff recently. There is more to come.

Outaide the top streaming players such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+, the second tier players are regularly talking. Sources close to these platforms say News Corp has periodically discussed partnerships between Binge with Stan’s owner, Nine Entertainment (which owns the Financial Review). Nine chief executive Mike Sneesby has met with Paramount+ executives.

Foxtel faces its streaming apocalypse

Once the country’s most profitable media group, Foxtel is losing subscribers and is facing a mega-sports rights bill. Will it make it through?

www.afr.com

This is a great article, thanks for sharing.

I've advocated for a return to Foxtel over Stan in this thread but seeing this new data has me questioning whether the trend is starting to turn against them. Kayo is still the top sports streaming service we have (IMO) - but if they continue to counter revenue losses in other areas with price rises, I genuinely wonder how much consumers will take before they start to abandon in droves.

Also - hot tip for any Kayo people struggling with COL. Sign up as a digital member to an AFL club - usually can pay monthly and the biggest benefit being a member is a yearly kayo basic sub that is 20-30% cheaper than paying for Kayo in the normal fashion. Unsure who is the cheapest this year but last year it was North Melbourne.

 

[Adam84]

Disney Plus price increases, achieve market break-in through low-cost and then increase(double) prices once they’ve achieved a reasonable market saturation.

 

[Doritos Day]

Its astonishing there are still that many set top box customers.

idk the plug and play zero issues nature of it is still undefeated imo. real 4K is a good bonus

you get Foxtel Go (online streaming) access as well so I don't think it's that hard for a family to get better value than they would for Kayo/Binge

 

[Adam84]

idk the plug and play zero issues nature of it is still undefeated imo. real 4K is a good bonus

you get Foxtel Go (online streaming) access as well so I don't think it's that hard for a family to get better value than they would for Kayo/Binge

Only those who have opted to upgrade can get the 4K though, that was another issue i took with Foxtel.
My parent’s were subscribers for 20 odd years paying the premium package, and yet Foxtel wouldn't upgrade their set-top box without charging another fee, yet a new customer signing up would receive it for free.

Given a large portion of the legacy Foxtel customer base is the boomer generation, I wouldn't’ be surprised if many haven’t upgraded and thus aren’t getting the 4k .

 

[KevinO]

Has anyone come into contact with these new illegal streaming services lately? They seem to be a topic of discussion in my circles at the moment and I’ve seen a number of market stalls flogging them which is interesting.

Essentially $100 for an Amazon fire stick which has been loaded with some app, take it home and plug it into your smart tv, subscribe to the service for another $100 for the year (all these costs are rough as I don’t actually know). You then have access to every streaming service currently around the world, by that I don’t mean people have downloaded shows, but its actually streaming like Stan sports, Kayo, pay per view fights, Aussie and American Netflix etc.

I have no doubt these have been around for ages but they seem to be leaking into mainstream discussions due to the overall cost of needing multiple services.

I've been doing it for years, so I bought my own fire stick $50. Pay about $150 a year on top. Have 5000 channels and 2nd app with movies and TV shows.

Ask whether you’re comfortable providing credit card details to a group which provides an illegal service and has no consumer protection. It’s not a matter of ‘if’ your credit card details get on-sold, it’s a matter of ‘when’. That been said there are ways to protect yourself in this area, but the effort factor starts extrapolating.

Vulnerabilities will always exist within SVOD services that people will seek to exploit and sell, happens every pay-per-view event. I wouldn’t be paying for a device though, it only takes an update for these loopholes to be closed just when you want it. You’ll also never receive the same level of functionality/features/4k & HD quality that you get direct through the SVOD service.

Paypal

 

[Crashy]

Reds / Blues game on Channel 9 - 39,000. So disappointing. Obviously need to add Stan to that.

 

[JRugby2]

Reds / Blues game on Channel 9 - 39,000. So disappointing. Obviously need to add Stan to that.

Streaming doesn't usually do all that much to ratings, unfortunately.

 

[KentwellCup>ShuteShield]

Im sure it world in regards to Super Rugby. As it is almost excusively on there.

 

[JRugby2]

Im sure it world in regards to Super Rugby. As it is almost excusively on there.

Maybe, but I doubt it. Paywalls tend to restrict a lot of people and Stan Sport doesn't offer much else. A general rule I learnt from my days in media was if the number was good, they'd publish it.

Edit: Even if it were say the same about or double the FTA number for that game (again which I doubt) 100-120K is peanuts in terms of audience. Represents <1% of total TV watchers in Aus.

 

[JRugby2]

"In the third year of RA’s broadcast deal with Stan Sport and Nine, the World Cup posted average audience figures of almost 450,000 for the final between South Africa and New Zealand, while the Wallabies’ 40-6 group defeat to Wales was the most watched Australian game with an average audience of 363,100.

The average audience for the weekly Saturday night Super Rugby game on free-to-air TV was up 15 per cent on 2022’s average."

‘Another challenging year’: Rugby Australia posts $9.2m annual loss

Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh has warned of tough times ahead after the governing body announced a $9.2 loss for 2023.

www.brisbanetimes.com.au

 

[Strewthcobber]

NewsCorp/Code Sports are reporting that Nine/Stan's initial offer for the next broadcast deal is down to $25m a year from $33m currently

 

[KentwellCup>ShuteShield]

If we accept that deal/if thats the only deal we get I am afraid professional rugby today, as we know it, is over.

Only solution I can think of is opening up a domestic comp where the teams are operated and owned privately.

 

[Slim 293]

NewsCorp/Code Sports are reporting that Nine/Stan's initial offer for the next broadcast deal is down to $25m a year from $33m currently

Oooooh, that's the story with the headline:

CONTROVERSIAL board members elected...

NewsCorp gonna NewsCorp.