Memo to Patrick Delaney; you’ve got all your priorities wrong.  It seems to me you’re changing the approach of your streaming service Foxtel Now to more closely emulate the traditional Foxtel pricing model – but that’s just not going to fly.

You need to drive more customers to your business, not drive customers away.

When Foxtel Now launched (their 100% online streaming service) it was not only a great simple approach to streaming content, but it presented pretty bloody good value all things considered. (those things being the huge history of Foxtel as not just another streaming startup).

You could sign up to one of five entry packs, three of which were just $10 – including the Kids and Doco packs.  Then you could add on any of the other four packs there, or add Sport for $29 or Movies for $20.

This meant that you could get Fox Sports for $39 a month – $10 for the kids pack for example, plus $29 for Sport.

From what we can see today on the Foxtel Now website, $25 is the new starting price, for the Pop and Lifestyle packs, meaning the minimum cost for Sport has gone up to $54!

The website now promotes The Pop&Lifestyle starter pack,  Drama ($15), Sport ($29) and Movie ($20) add on packs, and an “All Packs” package for $104.  This then includes the Kids + Docos packs which are priced at $20 per month, but are ONLY available if you have all the other packs.

That’s right, the MINIMUM Price to get the Kids pack on Foxtel’s streaming service Foxtel Now has gone from $10 a month, to $104 a month.

The motivation here is either to stop so many people getting the kids or docos packs at such a low price and then adding nothing else ($10 a month is in line with Netflix and Stan, so perhaps people are choosing it as an option?) – or, to drive more and more people to their Satellite business.

For a big business like Foxtel success is measured in a combination of customer numbers and “ARPU” – Average Revenue Per User.  This move will do big things for ensuring the low value customers either scale up to a higher price or disappear all together.  Perhaps Foxtel doesn’t care if they abandon their service entirely – but the only winners here will be Netflix and Stan – both of whom have loads of Kids content.

EFTM understands these new prices apply to new customers only, with existing customers retaining their existing prices.

Foxtel told me in a social media response “If you are a new Foxtel Now subscriber or reactivating your old service, from 1 October 2018, you will subscribe to our new pricing and packaging structure. We are simplifying our Foxtel Now entry level pack to include Pop + Lifestyle for $25 per month which already includes showcase, home to some exceptional Dramas and Arena that goes to the next level. You can then add other packages that you like. Please visit this link for more info about our new price and packaging for Foxtel Now, here: foxtel.com.au/now/shop.html“