Foxtel’s Flash cuts editorial staff as struggling streaming service changes tack

Calum Jaspan

February 16, 2023 11:06

Foxtel’s Flash has cut its editorial team as the service continues to struggle to find an audience, with paid subscriber figures last reported in November at 15,000, 18 months after its launch.

Flash launched in the second half of 2021, becoming the third brand in Foxtel’s streaming stable, which is increasingly becoming more central to the company’s strategy. Now, it has said it will be led by its technology and operations team, rather than its editorial team.

Flash’s Kate di Brito

Former news.com.au editor-in-chief Kate de Brito was tapped by Foxtel in to head up the new service originally, with James Law, who was leading News Corp’s Newswire service also brought in.

It is understood both will now move into other parts of the News Corp business.

“Today we are announcing some important changes to Flash that evolve the service based on subscriber feedback and future-proof the platform as one of the Foxtel Group’s core streaming businesses,” CEO of Binge, Kayo and Flash, Julian Ogrin told staff in an email yesterday.

“These changes reflect a more mature business based on 18 months of learning about what our subscribers value most about Flash. They build on the incredible work done by Kate de Brito, James Law and all the team in building a world-class news streaming service in its first year in market.”

There will be some redundancies as a result of the changes, Foxtel confirmed to Mumbrella, however, some other editorial staff will also be redeployed across News Corp titles, Sky News Australia and other positions within Foxtel, Mumbrella understands.

Ogrin said ‘like any good start-up, we adjust and evolve’

Ogrin continued: “At the same time, the ground-breaking work in original editorial and content curation has opened up new opportunities in automation, so like any good start-up, we adjust and evolve. This will see us shift away from creation and curation in FlashNav, Flashpoints, Minis and Topics – to more automated curation and news source programming supported by our technology and operations team.”

“I have no doubt that Kate and James will go on to bigger and better things in the News Corp family given their outstanding leadership since launch and more recently, in reimagining a new future for Flash. We will share more news on this soon.”

In Foxtel’s financial results shared last week, the company did not share Flash’s subscriber figures for the first time since its launch, signaling potential plans to sunset the service in the future.

Yet Ogrin insisted that Flash will continue to be central to the company’s plans.

“For our subscribers, the core Flash streaming service won’t change. It will continue to be reimagined. We will continue to offer more than 4000 hours of live programming every week and more than 1100 news shows and documentaries. Our subscribers will see us focus on the vast array of live news sources and channels we offer via the platform. This will continue to be supported by Hero and Tile carousels. It’s all the things that the subscribers value most about Flash.

“It’s been exciting to create a unique start-up business and now establish a new future for the service. Flash is a core streaming offering for the Foxtel Group, and I’m incredibly pleased to see it evolve into its next phase after a successful first year.”

The company’s overall paid subscribers across its three streaming brands also fell for the first time since the launch of Binge, led by a drop in paying customers to its Kayo service in the popular winter codes seasons.