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Foxtel rebrands and officially launches Foxtel Now after conceding brand was seen as ‘aggressive’

Foxtel is attempting to reposition as a brand and content platform for everyone, “not just the privileged few”, with new logos, branding and the official launch of streaming service Foxtel Now.

 

 

 

Conceding that the brand’s previous logo with big block capital letters and burnt orange colouring was “almost like when someone sends you a text message all in capital letters”, Foxtel CEO Peter Tonagh said the brand had been seen as “quite aggressive, quite arrogant, quite elitist” for some time.

The new branding – created in collaboration with design agency Maud – which rolls out on Sunday with a national advertising campaign by TBWA, including a wrap around all News Corp papers, has removed the capitalisation, with “the key message being that Foxtel is for everyone”, Tonagh said.

Managing director of customer and retail Mark Buckman said the rebrand marked an important day in Foxtel’s history, as it moved away from its legacy issues.

“For the first time in 22 years, we’re going to be going to market with a very different looking Foxtel,” he said. “But when you think about all of the great content, all of the great technology changes, the launch of the IP product, we almost have to take a different position to market.

“And as PT [Peter Tonagh] said, one of the things that we’ve dealt with over the last little while has been at Foxtel there has been a very masculine, very shouty, retail capital letters kind of brand. And that served us well for quite a long time, but with all of these changes in the industry and going on inside Foxtel, in order for people to think, feel and speak differently about us, we have taken the move to reimagine what Foxtel might be.”

Foxtel’s old logo

The new, less masculine and aggressive branding, he said, was part of Foxtel’s efforts to appeal to more people and become a more relatable and accessible product and brand.

“At the heart of that is the fact that we believe that great content, and the great content that we have from Australia and around the world, shouldn’t be reserved for the right of the privileged few, but should be at the heart of it available for everybody.”

This, he said, extends beyond the subscription-based television services’ content offering – and would be reflected in the company’s culture and dealings with customers.

“A brand is much more than a logo and a word mark. It’s about every experience and every interaction that our customers have with us – whether it’s the way that we speak to our customers in our call centres, so the language will be fresh, approachable, direct, simple, as opposed to long conversations that can go on forever,” he said, noting that this also applied to how technicians installed IQ boxes, the company’s sponsorship deals and “of course the way we treat each other as colleagues inside the company”.

Foxtel Now
Today also marked the official launch of Foxtel Now, the company’s streaming service which comes about after rumours of the demise of the Foxtel Play brand.

Tonagh said despite perceptions players such as Netflix had a better movie selection, and that Stan heavily invested in original content, Foxtel’s offering was strong and its content unparalleled.

“There is no doubt in my mind that our most core strength is around content,” he said. “And I think we have over many years we have built up a position where we have enviable level of content.”

Foxtel, he said, needed to spruik its content proposition to consumers more effectively, so they know what they’re getting in an age where competition, content and service offerings are increasing.

“Those days [where we have purely exclusive content] have gone because clearly there is now much more competition. There is more content that is available. And what that leads us to is a need to really double down on the content that we think really makes a difference to our subscribers and spend more on that, while spending less on other content. I think in the nature of that, it’s probably worth noting that each year, we spend over $1.6 billion on content. If you think about it, that’s 16 times what Fairfax and Nine said they were going to invest in Stan. So it’s a massive investment. For us it’s not a question of needing to spend more money on content, it’s a question of how do we spend that money to get the best value out of it?”

Delivering this content to audiences who want it will be Foxtel’s key focus, he said – not chasing down pirates who access it by other means.

“Despite everyone focusing on my personal passion for piracy and focusing on court cases and other things, the most important thing for us is not about taking people to court for piracy, it’s about making the product accessible in a timely basis at an affordable cost. That’s the first step. After that then we focus on education, thirdly we focus on court cases. But really, making that content accessible is the most important thing,” he said.

Peter Tonagh: “For us it’s not a question of needing to spend more money on content, it’s a question of how do we spend that money to get the best value out of it?”

Explaining how Foxtel Now stands apart from the soon-to-be defunct Foxtel Play, the company said: “Foxtel Now is a new evolution of the Foxtel Play streaming service and features low-priced and flexible bundles that ensure subscribers have greater freedom and access to sign up to Foxtel’s incredible content with no set-up costs and the ability to cancel at any time.

“Foxtel Now arrives with the widely anticipated addition of HD streaming on select devices, combined with a brand new user interface, plus the ability to stream Foxtel Now to the big screen via Google Chromecast.”

Tonagh said the time was right to relaunch the streaming service.

“Over the past few months we’ve introduced some fantastic new changes to our subscription streaming service including lowering the entry point to $10 per month and launching on Telstra TV. As part of the evolution of our streaming service, we felt the time was perfect to relaunch the service as Foxtel Now.

“Foxtel Now represents our most flexible and affordable entertainment service and brings with it HD streaming, a great new look and feel and the freedom to jump in and out based on your viewing preferences.”

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