Exclusive: Foxtel Slashes Jobs as DAZN takes control and Hubbl’s Bubble Bursts

One of Australia’s biggest media companies is undergoing a significant shake up with mass redundancies taking place this week at Foxtel across the entire business with a large number of people axed from the Hubbl product team.

Less than a month after the acquisition of Foxtel by DAZN went through, the business is undergoing what appears to be a significant shake up to tighten the purse strings and make it a more lean organisation in this new streaming first world under DAZN.

Speaking to EFTM about the rumours of redundancies at Foxtel one employee, who did not wish to be named said “I don’t know the exact number but I would say at least more than 100 people so you know it’s it’s significant”

Asked if this was in any way expected, there was a genuine sense of shock, given the new ownership had only just kicked in. EFTM was told the DAZN CEO had visited Foxtel to address staff, but there was no indication of likely or pending changes.

A Foxtel Group spokesperson told EFTM tonight that “Our transformation is not new. We have been focussed 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. 

“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.

“This week our teams have had the difficult task of speaking with a number of highly skilled and highly valued people that will leave the Foxtel Group.  We are grateful to every team member that has helped us grow the business and put us in the position of strength we are in today“

While some reports have indicated the changes at Foxtel were related to Hubbl, it appears far more widespread, though Hubbl is heavily affected. A worker who spoke to EFTM after being made redundant from the technology team at Foxtel said “There’s a number of people being affected across technology, the word on the street is that there’s about 35 people from Hubbl that have gone”

What next for Hubbl?

When asked specifically about the future of Hubbl, Foxtel’s spokesperson told EFTM “We are maintaining Hubbl, and customer feedback about the product has been very positive.”
 
“Naturally, having made a significant marketing investment to build consumer awareness and establish a market position in its first year, we are now looking at how best to maintain Hubbl as a more mature business within the Foxtel Group portfolio of products.”

EFTM’s understanding though is that the redundancies at Foxtel related to Hubbl were on the Device and Product side, which feed into our view that Hubbl is here for the long term – just not as a physical product.

Hubbl’s core benefit to consumers as a product is as a software service that allows you to have a single bill and manage multiple subscriptions through a single platform, in the same way that Optus does with it’s Sub-Hub product.

The cost, and overheads of producing, distributing and supporting a physical box, let alone a physical TV (Hubbl Glass) make no sense in a streaming first future, one that DAZN will most certainly be expecting.

So while Foxtel can and will honestly keep the Hubbl brand, and product, expect the current batch of devices to be the last that come into the country, and perhaps expect some run-out deals on those that are here now. Though this is just pure speculation on our part.