With over a million subscribers, Netflix has firmly established itself as the content streaming service in Australia, and Foxtel is taking notice. With Foxtel continuing to work on its own on-demand streaming service and accompanying hardware, bulking up the online viewing catalogue is a priority — as is ensuring it is legitimate competition.
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According to SMH, Foxtel is not only considering adding Netflix to its service (known internally as “Puck”) but is also approaching Discovery, the BBC and Viacom for video-on-demand rights to more content.
It’s not new for a streaming service to allow access to another streaming service’s content — Fetch TV hosts both Netflix and Stan — but this is an unprecedented move for Foxtel, which highlights the uphill battle it is facing. Foxtel is still viewed as the polar opposite to every other on demand service — expensive, inconvenient and inflexible. A new advertising campaign focusing on combating this perception was launched on Sunday night.
Foxtel’s “Puck” will be in direct competition with Telstra TV — Telstra is a 50 per cent shareholder in Foxtel. With the announcement of a new CEO for Foxtel last week, it was revealed that Telstra is considering selling off at least some it’s share in Foxtel, for $4.5 billion.
[SMH]