Foxtel boss Richard Freudenstein is standing by his prediction that the pay TV company can attract half of all Australian households as customers.
In an interview with BusinessDay, Mr Freudenstein outlined his strategy to ''create a virtuous circle'' to encourage more subscribers and less churn. While some analysts have dismissed the goal of 50 per cent market penetration, Mr Freudenstein said it was all about offering different price points.
''At the top end we have got it right. We are [now] going to be very focused on marketing at different price points … I think we can get to 50 per cent.''
And while Foxtel is beginning to expand into some IPTV offerings, both directly on smart TVs, over the internet and through Telstra's T-Box and other internet-linked devices, Mr Freudenstein said he expected the bulk of new customers would continue to take the service by cable or satellite pay TV because these made the full breadth and quality of content available.
More than 40 per cent of Foxtel's customers were on a ''platinum'' package - paying $106 a month, he added. However, the softer economic environment has prompted Foxtel to offer the Olympics free to existing Sports customers and Mr Freudenstein said the company was focused on offering more value to existing subscribers.
The recent proliferation of new secondary channels had limited pay TV growth, he said, but he believed that before long viewers would return to Foxtel because of the limited content available on free-to-air's secondary channels. He said pay TV's high-definition qualities had been undersold and that it was still ''a big differentiator'' between free and paid television, and that Foxtel should promote it better.
However, he also acknowledged that with the rise of other new digital services and IPTV, ''there's more competition to Foxtel than there has ever been''.
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