Best of the Week: What the new data tells us about Foxtel
Welcome to Best of the Week, kicked off on QF2 an hour or two out from Darwin, in the early hours of Saturday morning, and wrapped up at the Ibis Darling Harbour early on Sunday morning.
Happy VE Day. I watched Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk on the flight home to Australia. It’s underrated. The film’s power is in demonstrating the individual sacrifices of ordinary people to keep their home free. Seven decades later, it’s a bit too easy to take for granted.
Today’s writing soundtrack: Lemon Jelly – ‘64 – ‘95.
There was something peculiarly frustrating about boarding a flight on Friday morning Australian time, knowing the release of the News Corp quarterly financial numbers was due at any moment. Using the journey to look closely would have been a good way of using my time.
Unmade Substack
I’d be suprised if they kill off Flash. As you say, News is still at the heart of the business, and Flash is (I believe) the only way to stream Sky News Australia. So I’m sure subscriptions will be dished out to journalists across the group (and outside), politicians and other Influential People to make sure they’re across what’s being said.
If you consider that as the raison d’etre for the service, then 8,000 paying subscribers are 8,000 subscriptions worth of profit. The additional costs of running Flash alongside the main streeaming serices must be negligible, particularly with subscriber numbers that small, which will help.
It may not make financial sense, but it probably makes marketing sense, to keep it going.
Good point re Sky News, Gavin. Broadcast subscribers can also access it via Foxtel Go (although that’s obviously a high cost option).
Cheers,
Tim