There is nothing like owning your own media outlets when it comes to slagging off your competitors. This time it’s Nine Entertainment, the owners of Stan and the SMH and the Age, which are taking pot shots at Foxtel, apparently over their record ratings for the opening of the NRL season.

The issue of whether Foxtel numbers are accurate is apparently being questioned by  OzTAM, who are a TV measurement organisation that is far from being independent.

In fact, they’re owned by the free-to-air competitors to Foxtel, and include, archrival Nine Entertainment on their board, who also happen to own Stan, a competitor to the Foxtel-owned Kayo and Binge.

OzTAM, is questioning Foxtel’s record weekend audience to the opening games of the NRL season, which were available in 4K.

Foxtel is 65% owned by News Corp and 35% by Telstra, who also own the Fetch TV service in Australia.

Analysts know Nine Entertainment management, headed by Mike Sneesby, the former boss of Stan are desperate to replicate the success of Foxtel, and in particular Kayo and Binge.

Nine Entertainment recently claimed their streaming platform Stan increased active subscribers by 6% to 2.5 million in the year to June, as revenue lifted 22% to $381.2 million.

Average active subscribers to Stan Sport were more than 150% higher in the June quarter than the same quarter last year. This was off what insiders are telling ChannelNews was a “very small base that grew fractionally due to the start of the Rugby Union season”.

They also reported 30% increase in costs, primarily reflected the increased investment in Stan Sport.

Ex Sport, costs were up by 16%, reflecting the ramp up of the NBCU and Starz/Lionsgate output deals, as well as the increased roll out of Stan Originals.

In comparison, Foxtel recently reported that across all of its residential offerings and streaming subscribers (Kayo, Binge and Foxtel Now), they had 4.529 million subscribers, up 12.7% from 4.019 million at the same time last year. Foxtel have the rights to Australia’s most watched sporting codes NRL and AFL, as well as Cricket and all Formula One races.

They are also the only Australian network putting NRL and AFL games to air in 4K.

Stan Sports, who recently raised the price for access to their sports streaming service, despite only having a limited range of sports available, mostly Rugby Union that is struggling to attract audiences, similar to what coverage of the AFL and NRL bring in, failed to give coverage in their own publications to the 15% increase in the price of their standard package and a 10% increase in their premium package.

The only way you would know of the price increase is via a visit to the Stan website.

Of late, Nine Entertainment has splashed more than three quarters of a billion dollars in an effort to buy their way in to the sports market.
Recently they bid $305m for the exclusive rights to the next five Olympic Games, from Paris in 2024 through to Brisbane in 2032, and last year $100M for the rights to the struggling Rugby Union code.

They also splashed out $425M to Tennis Australia for a five-year extension of its broadcast rights to the Tennis Open in Melbourne that competes with Foxtel and the Seven Network’s coverage of Australian cricket and Test matches.

The new five-year deal (from 2025 to 2029) includes a $425 million cash component, plus considerable additional value in contra, retained rights and promotion, making it the biggest in the history of Tennis Australia.

What’s not known is how the network, who are facing falling free-to-air viewers, is going to get a return on investment as major brands invest in new ways to reach an audience.

At this stage it appears Nine are punting on a surge in subscriptions for their sports coverage.

Sport is not the only area where Nine is facing pressure to deliver content.

Recently, Foxtel Group has signed a new multi-year deal with Warner Bros Discovery, which will see the prized HBO and Max Originals content stay with the media group in Australia. Foxtel and Binge subscribers will also keep their access to other Warner Bros and Discovery programming.

ChannelNews understands that Nine Entertainment financially matched the bid that won Foxtel the deal.

The new “multi-year” deal will see Foxtel keep the exclusive rights to HBO content in Australia. ChannelNews understands that at one stage HBO were looking at setting up their own streaming operation in Australia but instead chose to invest in their relationship with Foxtel over the Nine Entertainment Stan partnership.

ChannelNews has attempted to contact OzTam chief executive Doug Peiffer to clarify the issues.

According to Nine Media he saw the press release with the numbers and is working with Foxtel to understand the data.

“I have put a call into Foxtel to understand how they have put those numbers together,” Peiffer said.

Foxtel has denied any wrongdoing.

“Transparency and accuracy of data around audience numbers is something which we take incredibly seriously, and we continue to work closely with OzTAM in relation to its industry-wide linear reporting,” a Foxtel spokesman said.

In what appears to be a blatant quote from a Nine Entertainment source, who the SMH claims spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak publicly, claim Foxtel is misstating data it receives from OzTAM by combining it with internal data and failing to remove duplicate audiences across its services, such as Foxtel IQ, Foxtel Go, Binge and Kayo Sports.

What ChannelNews needs to understand is that if I start watching an NRL match in 4K on Foxtel and then go out and later continue to watch the game on Kayo, via my mobile, am I actually seen as unique viewer to both platforms according to OzTAM, who measure in periods of time.

As for an advertiser, it’s a case of follow-me technology, where a viewer could be exposed to marketing on both platforms and be captured on both platforms if they have a subscription to both.

OzTAM tracks people watching subscription television via a dedicated panel comprised of 2120 homes, from metropolitan and regional Australia.

The panel tracks the consumption of Foxtel Kayo and Binge shows, regardless of whether a person is watching it on a Foxtel channel, or via one of its associated streaming services claims OzTam.

Nine Media claim Foxtel is allegedly adding these figures to internal streaming consumption data, without removing those who may already be sitting on a panel.