Impact of EPL loss is overstated within industry due to number of ex-pats says MCN sales boss
Frain: loss of EPL is probably being overstated.
The sales and marketing boss of television sales house the Multi-Channel Network (MCN) has downplayed the impact of Fox Sports’ loss of the English Premier League on the pay-TV giant.
Mark Frain, chief sales and marketing officer at MCN, said the shock loss of the EPL broadcast rights to telco Optus was probably being overstated in media circles due the high number of British ex-patriates within the industry.
“There are a lot of English guys in the industry that will be talking about it – probably more than most – it is hard to say (what the impact will be),” said Frain.
Earlier this month, Foxtel lost to the rights to the EPL to Optus sparking concerns that the pay-TV operator could potentially lose hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
The senior MCN executive, who is responsible for selling Foxtel’s audiences, downplayed this risk arguing that with the time difference of the EPL it was not a lucrative franchise in an advertising sense.
“Because of the time difference it comes in at a challenging time anyway,” he said. “If I look at all the codes from an advertising revenue perspective it is not one of the biggest money drivers.”
Frain noted that by securing AFL and NRL rights Foxtel would ensure it had a strong offering for Australian sports fans. As part of the deal with Nine Entertainment Co to secure the NRL rights Fox Sports will also create a dedicated channel in 2017, similar to Fox Footy.
“Given what we have achieved with the AFL deal, and now having the NRL confirmed, is great news for our business,” said Frain. “Moving into 2017 when we look to build a channel offering similar to Fox Footy that again comes back to innovating television.
“With the NRL and the AFL the fan interest in those codes is second to none in this market. Watching the performance of the AFL and NRL magazine shows in the past two or three years shows the commitment of fans to both those codes. I think it will go really well.”
The statement came as MCN announced its was extending its programmatic offering with the newly acquired Network Ten assets to be included within both its Multiview XP and MCN Programmatic XP private exchange from the second quarter of 2016.
It won’t be ready in terms of capability until Q2 next year. The first step for us is getting Ten onto our Landmark platform which happens in Q2. Once we have that then that true capability comes to life.
“This is an extension of what we did last year,” said Frain. “The first step will be adding our premium video inventory to that private marketplace. Then come Q2 an element of Ten’s inventory will be part of the marketplace so that media buyers will have the ability to buy premium inventory across Foxtel, Ten and across our key digital assets.”
MCN launched the first private exchange for linear TV in Australia in June and will now expand it to include Ten inventory and premium digital assets and while its broader programmatic data play launched last year has also been extended to include the free-to-air network, which has moved its sales functions following Foxtel’s investment.
“The data play is an extension of what we took the industry through last year with the multiview product being able to target and trade more than just demographics,” said Frain.
“The big play this year is maintaining that strategy from MCN’s perspective, but starting to apply that to linear free-to-air across Ten’s inventory and across of a number of our core digital assets as well.
“The proposition of bringing Ten’s strong audience performance together with the (data) capability has certainly captured the imagination of the industry and captured the possibilities of what happens moving forward into 2016.”
Frain also said he welcomed moves by rivals Seven and Nine to catch up in the programmatic space, after a series of announcements by the pair in their 2016 upfront presentations.
“Catch up isn’t the right word,” he said. “What is key is continuing to add relevancy and digital capability to the television business. What they are doing is great for the TV business.
“MCN is committed to ongoing innovation to lead television. Nine etc. have been complimentary to what we have built. Their announcements over the last three to four weeks have been helpful and have helped add greater stability and innovation to the overall TV business.”
Frain also played down the impact of declines in audiences for television in both free-to-air and pay-TV telling Mumbrella: “It is the journey are we all on. It is positive news for the overall category. I think it only strengthens viewers and advertisers interest in premium content and what the new world of television can do for advertisers and brands.”
Nic Christensen
I can’t answer for the other ex-pats but $130 a month suddenly gets a whole lot less attractive without the EPL.
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The argument that it isn’t a big generator completely misses the crux of the issue. The EPL rights are all about subscriber acquisition/ loss and if he thinks that EPL fans are mainly British ex-pats then he is sorely misguided.
It is the league of choice for a vast number of all football fans in Australia, regardless of whether they are British ex-pats (that said, you lose that group alone and that’s a lot of people and money).
And the issue is that for a lot of EPL fans, it represents a huge part of the decision to subscribe.
I would have preferred to have seen a more balanced response not some sort of misguided attempt to gloss over the issue. The fact is that it could have a big impact, time will tell.
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Not sure if MCN were generating much revenue from games broadcast before the crack of dawn.
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I don’t think it can be OVER-stated. EPL was a flagship offering for Foxtel. Hopefully Optus will just be happy to be back in the spotlight and offer EPL/sports streaming subscriptions much like BeIN currently offers, sans the rest of the rubbish.
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He would say that wouldn’t he.
As a Sunderland supporter he’s probably quite happy that he won’t have to live through the pain of watching them every week.
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with no EPL I’ll certainly be canceling my subscription, $120/month was always too expensive and now….well…
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I’m pretty sure the EPL is the only reason for a Foxtel subsription for many people. For most people, live sport is the sole reason to pay for Foxtel and their absurdly overpriced offering now that Netflix is here.
I think it will be interesting to see if numbers of eyeballs for the EPL is better at its new home as it migth give us an insight into the “anti-Rupert” numbers. Anecdotally you hear of people who won’t subscribe to Foxtel because of the Murdoch/Fox News tarnished brand. This might be a good practical experiment to indicate how strong that boycott is in Australia.
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I recall that Foxtel/MCN stated that the loss of exclusive rights to the BBL to Ten was not a big issue (albeit the largest contributor to summer ratings). Now we here the EPL is not that much of concern.
When they lose the next one and the one after – I wonder what the commentary will be……….
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Are those ex pats not consumers too?
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He’s dreaming if he thinks it isn’t a factor. There will be Foxtel boxes 10 deep at the tip!!
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As others above have alluded, why ask MCN about this issue? EPL value isn’t as an ad driver it’s a subscription driver and not having it will hurt. The biggest loser in this unfortunately will be the A League as left alone on Fox Sports I can’t see many subscribing just to watch.
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I would hope that he would have audience actual figures, with the expats flagged, not relying on the vibe in the pom-heavy industry to size his potential loss.
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Having just completed a large piece of research on male sports……….the vast majority of average Australian blokes couldn’t give a toss about EPL. I think he is right pointing out the bias of the sample pool in media circles. The numbers I have seen indicate building a business acquisitions strategy around live AFL and League are definitely the way to go.
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Hey Frain do you realise how many Brits live in Australia? How about europeans?
Optus just landed a direct link to one of the major immigrant groups and tourist groups at Foxtel’s expense.
Not sure how they’re rolling it out yet but imagine if they had access to all the weekend games ready to view right when they woke up all as part of their regular plan?
I wouldn’t say nail in the coffin for Foxtel, but it’s definitely going to seriously sting.
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Typical.
Whinge when Foxtel has the EPL. Whinge when they lose it to Optus.
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heheh… “no great loss”
Will be interesting to see if Foxtel bids again when the rights come up next time, my guess… they will throw $millions at it.
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If it goes on Fetch that will be a new box and subscription on one of my two TV’s. Cheerio Foxtel Multiroom and doubtless a big chunk of channel subscriptions, not just Sport.
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The arrogance of MCN is a thing of beauty much like Kobe Bryant and his retirement announcement. Aren’t Sportal streaming the NBA for free now too?
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I am one of the millions of Australians born here that loves football (soccer). I play club football still, my son plays, we go to maybe 3-4 A-League matches a year and we love the EPL. I don’t know anyone in the football community that doesn’t follow an EPL club in some way shape or form. Now not all subscribe to Foxtel…but many do.
To me it’s a numbers game. If MCN/Foxtel lose even a small percentage of their subscriber base as they no longer offer EPL – then that will send shivers down the spines of the number crunchers. And as many have commented, with the impact of Netflix, and now the loss of the EPL, my guess would be that the number of subscribers departing will be significant.
I will certainly be off.
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well hey only a complete mor0n would pay $50 to watch boring afl and nrl hell only pensioners would watch afl same crap day in day out most stupiest channel ever created for losers..nrl is just hyped and has no potential same as afl 2 stupid leagues with that rely on dumb aus to make them great..on a international level both codes are crap..just like nfl in us media and gov pour money into and force ppl to watch that crap..same as afl.you never see anything bad being said about afl, its parents who are to blame..id rather wake up at 2am and watch epl than grand final with the same stupid teams in nrl and afl..why idiots watch this crap is beyond me seriously..its prob because aussies have no clue about sports and love watching the same garbage day in day out..at least football is different
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28% of the Aussie population were born overseas. (Give or take) Of those about 13% come from the UK, about 1.3M (Census 2011 so probably more now)
80% of Foxtel subs take the platform for sport. (I read it a few places)
80% of 1.3m is 1.04m
Lets say 10% of those take Foxtel solely for EPL (and THIS is the unknown % that Foxtel need to watch out for, could be less , could be more)
That’s 100,000 folk from 2.3m Australian uptake of Pay TV, who are paying minimum $50 for sport tier p/m
50 x 100k = 5,000,000 p/m or $60m PY.
Cost of rights to Optus, oddly – $55 – 60m per year….
Back of envelope, but interesting.
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Yes I hear also very few people are watching Netflix
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Steve. Good attempt.
Just to let you know that the 2.3m is subscribing homes with an average of around 2.5 people per household, so the people count is more like 5.75m.
However it is likely that in the ‘typical’ 2.5 person home, that it is ‘Dad’ that is the EPL fan and that of your nominal 100,000 that the majority fall into that ‘Dad’ category that will dump the Fox Sports tier.
I think the bigger question is how will Optus re-coup their $55m-$60m, plus running costs, plus marketing costs, and then make a profit. On the back of my envelope an EPL subscription would need to be at least half of a Fox Sports subscription – which is fine if you only follow the one sport.
If I were Foxtel, I’d introduce a $25 Sports tier where you could pick (say) 4 or 5 of their 9 sports channels and try and get EPL back in the fold.
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@rbb4lyf – your troll is awesome but obvious
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I hope it doesn’t go to the inept Fetch TV. Buffer! Buffer!! Buffer!!!
Please let it be back on the almost fail safe Foxtel platform in some shape or another??
I’d happily drop Fox’s Sports package and pay the $25 a month for the EPL.
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@Steve @Steve! Yes good points.
The way I would do it if I were Optus would be to go hybrid, just get it out there, so create and sell an EPL channel; sell it as an access seeker to Foxtel, use it on their own triple play services and also build it into an OTT app…..They have the ability to widen the reach, the EPL would have been made aware of that when the rights were bid on, build once distribute far and wide would be my best bet for getting the money back……….Then you also need to think about pubs and clubs.
I wrote more here..
http://www.ooyala.com/videomin.....rights-epl
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Hey, Coke Monster, outside right now. The challenge is on!
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@Pepsi Monster – Pistols at dawn it is
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