Doubts have been cast on claims by Fairfax media CEO Greg Hywood, that streaming Company Stan will be profitable next year.
A joint-venture between Fairfax Media and Nine Entertainment Stan, is competing head-on against Netflix and Presto, Hayward claimed yesterday after an investor briefing that he was confident that Stan was on a clear path to profitability.
A senior industry executive said that this “was “impossible” for Stan. He said “even if you gave Stan 400,000 subscribers in 2017 could they would not be profitable. At $9 a month this is only $36 million in revenue. Their costs which includes content acquisition is running at $50 million”.
Haywood who announced a $1 billion loss for Fairfax claimed that Stan has established itself as the local market leader in the SVOD category and is more than meeting its business targets.
This was also questioned as Netflix was moved to crank up TV series production now has over 1.8 million subscribers in Australia.
Last night Netflix confirmed that they are set to spend over $5 billion in the production of unique Netflix content.
TV networks will make 500 original scripted shows in 2017, almost 20 percent more than the 419 produced in 2015, which was itself a record, according to Landgraf, chief executive officer of 21st Century Fox Inc.’s FX Networks.
Netflix Inc. alone will make 71 shows — not counting the service’s growing number of kid’s series, documentaries, movies and foreign-language programming.
Currently Netflix is expanding their partner program in Australia with Hitachi, set to launch a new TV that will include a built-in Roku Smart TV player that allows owners to access multiple streaming services such as Netflix Stan and Presto.
Currently Telstra is selling the same Roku box as stand-alone unit branded Telstra TV.
