Foxtel launches no contract option while its streaming service Presto hunts for new CEO
Foxtel has launched a no lock-in contract option as the pay-TV provider seeks to further drive up its market penetration in Australia and attract viewers from streaming rivals.
The move was mooted by marketing boss Ed Smith last month, and comes as Foxtel and Seven formalised their joint venture with their streaming platform Presto and that it is seeking a separate management team for the service.
Courtesy of Savvy Media Monitoring
“We’ve being watching consumer confidence closely and this year we want to give people an opportunity to try Foxtel, at our new low price, and know that if they don’t like it, or their circumstances change, they can walk away,” Smith told Mumbrella.
“May/June is traditionally the end of financial sale period for Foxtel, a lot of people know our EOFYS sale. With our move to everyday low prices in November 2014 our entertainment package for 43 channels is only $25 a month all day, every day.”
The Foxtel television commercial prompting the offer shows “Paulie”, a member of the mafia, going to the boss of the family and asking to leave the family. After a dramatic pause the boss responds: “Ok, stay in touch.”
The tagline for the campaign is: “Leave without the drama”.
In the separate Presto announcement the company also said it was looking for a new management team with its current boss Shaun James, director of Presto and On Demand at Foxtel, acting as interim CEO of the joint venture.
“Presto has been steadily building its content proposition and the formalisation of our joint venture with Seven puts us in a position to dramatically ramp up our plans to be a major player in Australia’s SVOD sector,” said James.
“We’ve already confirmed key agreements with content providers such as HBO, Showtime and with our key shareholders Foxtel and Seven West Media and we recently announced our first-run exclusive Australian launch of the entire series of Aquarius, starring David Duchovny, coming to Presto Entertainment and Presto TV on Friday, May 29.”
The TV ad was created by Clemenger group Sydney, with production by Soundrel.
Nic Christensen
Mumbrella will be hosting a panel with all of the bosses of the local streaming players represented at the Mumbrella360 conference in a session called “the State of Streaming”.
Of course if one try’s to disconnect from Foxtel there’s no easy way. You can’t disconnect online and the only way through is to call them, get a auto-voice system and then try to wait for a long time to get through again. Its tedious and delibertaly time wasting and a disc incentive if you can’t afford to wait on hold for 30 minutes. And trying to disconnect the direct debit is also similar.
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Foxtel, please call your “entertainment package” what it really is – the dross package, let me have the sports package without the dross, and then maybe we’ll talk.
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Presto need to offer HD if they want to be serious about getting the early adopters.
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Gotta luv what competition can achieve.
A decade of disgruntled customers, the attitude and service never improved.
Now it’s fun to sit on the sidelines and watch the desperation build..
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…and they’re breaking records with the amount of new customers they sign up.
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…except for existing customers.
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Foxtel, the moment you allow us to pick and choose the channels we want rather than forcing us to buy countless channels we don’t want at ever greater prices then I’ll sign up.
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Presto is so bad , it is like a sub standard vhs tape how can anybody think that you would pay money for this.
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The Presto content is great, but the app is woeful. The pause button is often replaced with a spinning ball; you get sound but no picture when casting with Chromecast; there’s no HD; and the tech support is abysmal. If they don’t fix these things quickly, they’ll just burn more people who will probably never come back.
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Disconnecting from Foxtel was very time consuming and difficult – then I received numerous calls asking me if I would like to reconsider with new packages
etc. First time I’ve heard from their customer reps in 15 year! Not ONCE was I asked whether I was happy with they service.
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Isn’t the point of Presto for it to be terrible?
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Conference you say? Why hasn’t this been rammed down our throats?
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When oh when will foxtel put together a plan for customer retention and advocacy? or in 5 years will they just be a destination for people who are forced to pay for sport?
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Nice try, but Presto doesn’t even have HD streaming last I checked. *goes back to Netflix*
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Netflix and Stan for me. Services built for 21st Century video consumers.
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