Linear subscription TV gets clever as it does 'More' with less.
It’s a difficult time to adequately program a linear TV pay television service like Australia’s Foxtel. There’s challenges:
International content giants are pulling big marquee channels from distribution, pushing viewers towards their owned and operated subscription streaming services. Disney pulled its kids channels when it launched Disney+. Paramount is pulling MTV linear channels (outside of the US), with those shuttering globally by the end of the year.
Increased competition means greater difficulty acquiring buzzy titles, while also driving up prices.
Viewers are shifting towards on-demand streaming.
Foxtel’s challenges are not unique.
With the closure of these linear channels, the value proposition for Foxtel kept feeling diminished. It didn’t stop the prices going up.
I like Foxtel’s solution to this, announced yesterday: they’re planning to offer more.
Foxtel has announced seven new channels, offering, well, more of what it currently serves up:
By way of its Linkedin page (no media release, Foxtel?), it elaborated on what sort of programming we’re going to see on these channels:
More Comedy: Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, Scrubs, The Office (US), Ted and Community
More Drama: Wolf Hall, Mr Robot, Friday Night Lights, The Shield, Day of the Jackal, American Horror Story
More Lifestyle: Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy, Junior Bake Off, Changing Rooms, Millionaire Hoarders
More Docos: Gold Coast Cops, Bodycam Cops, Police Interceptors, My Strange Arrest
More Movies: The Dark Knight, Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, Gladiator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day
More British: Line of Duty, Broadchurch, Foyle’s War, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, The Office (UK)
More Classics: Psycho, M*A*S*H, To Sir with Love, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Murder by Death.
The Foxtel online guide hasn’t updated to add these channels, but they are supposedly active now. I’m not a Foxtel customer, so I haven’t been able to see an EPG.
The new channels are for IP connected iQ3, iQ4 and iQ5 customers and aren’t available on other platforms like Foxtel’s SVOD service BINGE.
The channels aren’t quite like a FAST channel, which is a proper linear channel experience. Instead, this is more like a scheduled on-demand offer. Yes, it’s in a linear schedule, but when you click on a show in the EPG, it just loads the show from the on-demand library. (This is likely why they are not making the channels visible in off-platform EPGs).
With the new channels, it feels like Foxtel is making somewhat of an effort here and delivering subscribers more, even if it is perception more than reality.
Related: Fetch TV squeezes more money out of customers as it circles the drain
Ghetto streaming service Fetch TV is introducing a $3.99 monthly fee for users who buy its hardware outright instead of getting it through their ISP. Among the exciting features Fetch touts is access to free-to-air broadcast television. It’s really sad to see how this once consumer-friendly, innovative subscription TV service has deteriorated so quickly. Read: TV Blackbox
News Desk
Netflix reports that tickets for the Stranger Things final episode cinema release will go on sale tomorrow. US and Canada only. Read: Netflix’s Twitter
Speaking of TV on the big screen, Twin Peaks: The Return has started playing in indie cinemas around the world. You’ll find it in Australia playing at Melbourne’s Astor Theatre on Jan 17/18 and playing at Sydney’s Randwick Ritz on Jan 24/25.
The Good Fight’s Sarah Steele (a bona fide should-be TV star who should have been given her own series to lead by this point) will join series Brilliant Minds in season 2 in a recurring role. Read: Deadline
Foxtel’s Flash and LifeStyle streaming services will be discontinued by in February 2026, with content to be made available through Binge. The writing for these two was on the wall when Foxtel’s Hubbl platform announced the end of its stack and save discount service. Read: TV Tonight
A two-season order for video game adaptation God of War has been confirmed by Amazon. Emmy-winner Frederick E. O. Toye will direct the first two episodes. Read: Variety
Netflix is launching three new one-hour yule logs videos based on KPop Demon Hunters, Stranger Things, and Wednesday. Each fireplace scene will include original music. Read: Variety
Ampere Analysis found that more than half (54%) of American 55-to-64-year olds now watch influencer content every week. Read: Deadline
Future linear core US TV advertising revenues will continue to decline by 6% to 8% for the next two years, according to MoffettNathanson Research. Read: Mediapost
Trailer Park
Run Away is the latest Harlan Coben series to debut on Netflix. It debuts Jan 1.
How far into the tangled web of dark secrets would you go to find your missing daughter? Harlan Coben’s RUN AWAY, starring James Nesbitt, Ruth Jones, Minnie Driver, and Alfred Enoch
Cashero debuts on Netflix Dec 26.
An ordinary man who inherits super strength discovers a greater evil out to steal his power. The one catch? Every use drains money from his wallet.
Sean Combs: The Reckoning is a documentary that debuts on Netflix today.
This documentary series unpacks the shocking allegations behind Sean “Diddy” Combs and his Bad Boy empire, spanning decades of his life and career.
That’s the newsletter for today.
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