Foxtel forms a smart partnership. Suggests a way forward in a shifting market.
It was in early January of 2016. David Bowie had died just a few days prior and, by coincidence, I was interviewing the Asia-Pacific lead for MTV Simon Bates. I’d mentioned to him that I had been a little frustrated that when Bowie died, I turned on MTV and it was just regular programming.
Keep in mind that this was 2016 and TV was almost never responsive in terms of interrupting schedules like that outside of cutting to breaking news. None of this is a slight on Bates (who I generally found to be incredibly sharp), but rather it was just standard practice. A few months later when Prince died, he was able to get some clips on the air pretty quickly.
I was thinking about this curation and responsiveness when talking to Matthew Lymbury during the week.
He’s the head of content for a company called Nightlife Music. It would be understandable if the name doesn’t immediately ring any bells, but if you have seen music videos playing on a TV in a pub, club, or gym over the past 25 years, you’ve certainly engaged with their work.
Nightlife got a call out of the blue about 5-6 weeks ago from Australian pay TV company Foxtel asking to manage their music channels following the end of its deal with Paramount.
Check out my interview with Lymbury for Mediaweek, with details on the new channels and the wild few weeks Nightlife has had figuring out how to create a suite of TV channels.
Some may look at Paramount’s MTV as the giant in the music video space (even if the crown probably rests upon Vevo nowadays), but what I found incredibly interesting about Nightlife is that they can bring really unique data to their programming. It has an on-demand system called crowdDJ, which lets users select songs to play in a venue (either via a terminal on the wall, or via the crowdDJ app).
For years now, the company has been building on this data, building an understanding of local audience interests. They are applying that info to their programming, notably with an Australian-focused music channel:
It works amazingly in the gyms. We saw an increase of nearly 30% using crowdDJ. So we know people want to hear Australian.
We have the data, we have the evidence. We know what songs they want to hear and the artists listen to as well. So being able to programme a whole music video channel with Australian artists is great.
It makes Foxtel’s decision to partner with Nightlife really astute.
And that got me thinking more broadly about Foxtel. This is a company with two real pressure points:
Content acquisition is more difficult because so many of the premium titles are being held back by competitors locally (ie HBO content is not as widely available with it on Max, Paramount/CBS shows on Paramount+, Disney shows on Disney+, etc).
For the traditional cable product Foxtel offers, the audience is getting older. Customer acquisition is more difficult and there’s retention issues there too.
But I’m looking at how smart this Nightlife Music partnership is and I’m thinking that surely this is the way forward for companies like Foxtel (and international pay TV companies too). The way to compete is quality curation and acquisition. The message should shift: it’s no longer that all of the stuff is on the service, but rather it should be that the best stuff is on the system - curated in the best way, by professionals who know what they are doing.
Lean into what one can control: quality.
News desk
The Paramount-owned Network 10 in Australia has done a brand refresh on its channels. It has even completely rebranded its streaming platform 10play. While the brand is gone, the service absolutely hasn’t been axed, despite what some scallywag may have implied in a clickbait email headline this morning. Read: Mediaweek
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney has legally changed his name to Rob Mac. He often cites the difficulty people have pronouncing his name. Read: THR
Cast contracts are up today for Doctor Odyssey, suggesting that show is done for. Read: TV Line
RIP Grosse Pointe Garden Society. Read: Deadline
Donald Trump says he will reveal, in two weeks, who the new US buyer is of TikTok. Read: Deadline
Marketers are pushing for greater product integrations into TV shows and movies. Read: WSJ
HBO has greenlit a return and series finale for Lisa Kudrow comedy The Comeback. Read: Mediaweek
That’s the newsletter for today.
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