- Kayo Sports price hike credited for ARPU rising
- Foxtel now has 4.41m paid subscribers, up 13% YoY
- Streaming represents 62% of Foxtel’s total subscribers
Australian pay-TV company Foxtel closed its fiscal 2022 fourth quarter with 4.41 million paid subscribers, a 13 per cent increase compared to the previous year.
The News Corp-owned media giant’s total subscriber count for the three months ended 30th June stood at a record high of 4.53 million, also up 13 per cent year-over-year (YoY).
Foxtel cited growth in Kayo Sports and Binge subscribers for the uptick, which was partially offset by lower residential broadcast subscribers.
Broadcast subscriber churn in the quarter improved to 13.8 per cent from 17.1 per cent in the previous year. Broadcast average revenue per user (ARPU) for the period increased two per cent YoY to AUS$82 (US$56).
Kayo closed the quarter with 1.29 million paid subscribers (1.31 million in total), up from 1.05 paid subscribers for the year prior.
Foxtel’s total number of paid subscribers for its streaming services, which also includes Foxtel Now and Flash, stands at 2.60 million. That number stood at just over two million for the equivalent quarter last year. Total streaming subscribers as of year end were more than 2.8 million, up 31 per cent YoY.
Streaming subscribers now represent 62 per cent of Foxtel’s total subscribers.
In May, Foxtel confirmed it was increasing the price of Kayo, its first hike since the service’s launch in November 2018. Kayo’s website said the increase ‘reflects the continual investment in technology and content costs for Kayo to deliver two concurrent streams of the best sporting content’.
The service added: ‘This includes access to more than 12,000 live sport events made available on the platform over the past six months, 25 per cent more than the previous year.’
“Again, the Foxtel Group is a company transformed, and one generating record metrics,” said News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson during the company’s investor briefing this week.
“Our sports streaming service, Kayo, is particularly successful, with ARPU rising, partially attributable to the recent price increase, and given the quality of our team’s productions and the quantity of quality sports.”
SportsPro says…
Kayo Sports was singled out for special praise in Foxtel’s latest set of financials, bucking recent negative trends in the streaming market. The rising cost of living has seen heavy hitters such as Netflix and Disney+ lose subscribers.
Sport is not necessarily an antidote, but it does offer an opportunity for platforms to stand out, particularly regional ones competing against global players.
Speaking to the Financial Times last month, Viaplay chief executive Anders Jensen explained the importance of a regional sports rights focus, coupled with other select programming.
“We couldn’t compete with Netflix on their half of their pitch,” he said. “So sports is the bridge, the thing that makes us stand out in a unique way.
“For us, it’s a mix [between drama and sport]. It’s the one way that a regional player can compete against the globals. We’re not there to replace them.”