Source : THE AGE NEWS
Foxtel has made 100 staff redundant, less than a month after being acquired by British firm DAZN, but confirmed it intended to keep supporting its streaming aggregation business Hubbl.
The cuts at the pay TV and streaming operator largely target staff from Foxtel’s marketing and engineering teams. Staff were told of the decision on Wednesday.
Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delany.
A Foxtel spokesperson confirmed a number of “highly skilled and highly valued people… will leave the Foxtel Group”.
“Our transformation is not new. We have been focused on efficiency for almost a decade, which has seen us successfully transform our business from being a single-product pay-TV operator to a modern Australian leader in streaming,” the spokesperson said.
“As part of the DAZN Group, we now have the opportunity to continue our transformation and take advantage of their global engineering and services. We are also working with DAZN to share our world-class product and technology expertise.”
DAZN agreed to buy Foxtel from its dual shareholders News Corp and Telstra in December in one of the most impactful Australian media deals of the 21st century.
The redundancies are understood to have included some staff from the company’s streaming aggregation business Hubbl.
Last week, The Australian Financial Review reported Foxtel had begun reviewing the future of Hubbl, which launched at the start of 2024 after spending more than $150 million.
DAZN is a sports-focused streaming company, with aspirations to become the Netflix or Spotify of sports broadcasting globally. Questions have been raised regarding its plans for Foxtel’s extensive non-sports assets, which include Hubbl, entertainment streaming service Binge, and its set-top box division.
The Foxtel Group remains profitable, and DAZN chief executive Shay Segev has indicated the new owners intend to keep it operating as a separate business under local boss Patrick Delany.
Shay Segev, the chief executive of DAZN.Credit: Alamy
DAZN’s majority owner, Sir Leonard Blavatnik, has invested more than $10 billion in the business over the past decade, amid several successive years of losses, according to British corporate filings.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund’s SURJ Sports Investment took a minority stake in DAZN this year.
As a result of the transaction, News Corp’s deputy chief financial officer, Andrew Cramer, was appointed to DAZN’s board, representing the New York-based media company.
Locally, one of Foxtel’s biggest challenges will be retaining the rights this year to the NRL, one of its prized assets and subscription drivers.
On Tuesday, DAZN and France’s top domestic soccer competition, Ligue 1, agreed to cut ties, one year into a four-year, €1.6 billion ($2.8 billion) contract, according to L’Equipe. DAZN said it would not respect its contract due to financial losses, the league’s failure to bring in subscribers and to tackle piracy.
The NRL is keeping a close eye on the breakdown in relations as it prepares to take its own rights package to market from 2028 and beyond.
