Foxtel admits subscriber figures include Presto users but claims cable still biggest growth driver
Freudenstein
Pay-TV provider Foxtel has admitted it has begun including subscribers to Presto in its subscriber numbers, after the company attempted to trumpet what it claims is record growth today.
CEO Richard Freudenstein heralded an 8.6 per cent year-on-year surge in subscribers this morning, however it appears the company has changed its reporting to include its half-owned video streaming service Presto in its subscriber figures, raising questions over how much of the growth is in the high margin cable and satellite product as opposed to the much lower-margin TV and movie streaming service.
Financial results released today by Foxtel’s 50 per cent shareholder Telstra showed total subscriber numbers grew to 2.847m as of June 2015, up from 2.667m a year ago. Much of the growth has come in the last six month as the streaming video battle ramped up, while Foxtel’s earnings before interest and tax has fallen 12.7 per cent to $513m.
tick tock
Hahahaaa! Wait for the media release where Foxtel redefines the term “subscriber” as anyone who has ever viewed an advertisement for Foxtel or picked up a brochure from the Foxtel booth in the mall.
Fudged and smudge the figures all you like, Foxtel: karma is a bitch.
a decade of contempt for customers is coming home to roost.
But I trusted everything a company affiliated with Murdoch says? 🙁 #saidnooneever
Couldn’t write comedy better than this. An unprecedented surge of 200 000 subscribers. The exact same number as the amount of Preston users.