Foxtel leans into sports and new advertising models at energetic upfront

If you weren’t aware yet that Foxtel had recently been bought by a sports broadcasting monolith, then the locker-room vibe of its 2026 upfront presentation will have been mighty confusing.

The event was titled Enter The Game, the ‘game day look’ was ‘courtside casual’ (sneakers, blazer over a t-shirt) and the venue — a disused power station in the inner west of Sydney — was decked out like the bastard child of a 1990s gaming arcade and a nightclub, with cricket nets, car-racing games, people kitted out in soccer uniforms, and tickets to the Ashes up for grabs.

It didn’t smell of Deep Heat, but there was a half-time break where oranges were handed out from eskies. And Adam Gilchrist was milling about, talking about tequila shots — but we’ll get to him.