Stan to break even in FY18, claims Fairfax Media CEO
Streaming service, Stan, is expected to break even in the 2018 financial year, Fairfax Media CEO Greg Hywood has said.
Stan – a joint-venture between Fairfax Media and Nine Entertainment Co., – launched on Australia Day in 2015 and currently boasts “more than 500,000 active subscribers”.
Hywood told a room of investors in Fairfax Media’s financial results presentation: “Stan launched 18 months when there was no established SVOD category. Now SVOD is in millions of homes, many of which subscribe to more than one service. Stan has established itself as the local market leader in the SVOD category and is more than meeting its business targets.
“Stan is on a clear path to profitability and we expect it to reach cash flow break-even in FY18. Additional cash flow investment is well justified.”
Hywood: Stan is more than meeting its business targets
Hywood claimed the SVOD platform “gained marketshare” this year and at the end of June “had more than 1.1m gross sign-ups”.
“Underpinning Stan’s strong market position is its broad international content, including its exclusive multi-year deal with CBS’s Showtime, supplemented by local productions such as No Activity and Wolf Creek,” he said.
“The latter of which was recently sold into international markets, enabling Stan to accelerate its funding for more original content.”
In May, Stan commissioned its first movie, a psychological thriller titled The Second, which was funded by Queensland taxpayers.
The promise of Stan breaking even follows on from slowing subscriber growth for rival streaming platform Netflix, reporting in July that it had added just 1.7m new users in the quarter compared with 2.5m in the previous quarter.
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
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I’m on my third stan subscription. The offers of ‘3 months free’ ensures a subscribe, cancel and repeat routine.
Same goes with Presto and it’s coupons. Haven’t paid a cent for it since it launched!
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It’s a shame you can’t spare 10 bucks a month to help support a local business and help grow some new local content which will employ hundreds of people.
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What a Scrooge …
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