What you need to know: 

• Foxtel Media has promised to hit the ground running with its OzTam alternative trading currency by the end of 2024.
• With VOZ slated for 29 December, it means agencies and clients will need to prepare to start 2025 with two new currencies – a significant "undertaking" per Zenith investment chief, Elizabeth Baker, but she's hopeful it will pay off. 
• OzTam has not taken the split with Foxtel lightly, and the latter's acceleration of the Video Futures Collective think tank is likely to add further salt to the wound. Though, Frain isn't ruling out that the industry may one day come back together. But only "under a very different operating mode".
• There's still no firm data for the likes of Amazon Ads, YouTube, SBS On Demand, Vevo and Samsung Ads to actually adopt the alternative currency.
• But Frain said it's "in the plan" and the collective has landed further research partners – IPG Mediabrand's Magna and OMG as well as measurement firm Beatgrid and attention specialists Amplified Intelligence. 
• Beyond metrics, Foxtel has partnered with CommBank iQ and Adgile to drive greater insights on ROI.
• Plus Binge is getting a sporty makeover, which Binge and Kayo chief Julian Ogrin positions as having turned the streamer a "utility" platform.
• Ogrin's hoping the newly expanded content offering will help lift audiences and hours spent on the platform without cannibalising Kayo users – as it stands, there's only 10 per cent cross over between the two. 
• Then there's the small matter of HBO. But could there be a sales silver lining?

Australia’s TV measurement race is heating up, with Foxtel’s promise to land it’s OzTam alternative by the end of the year – running against VOZ’s 29 December deadline – certain to further fracture the relationship between new and old guard in Australia’s already challenged video landscape.

It comes 12 months after the subscription TV and streaming business first debuted its plans to build its own total audience measurement solution with Kantar Media – an “unprecedented” turnaround, per Foxtel Media boss Mark Frain, in a swipe at OzTam’s long-running delays. He said Foxtel now has all of its data "in one place, privacy-compliant with an independent third-party".

The new currency spearheaded a push from Foxtel to keep differentiating from its traditional rivals, going large as the major local TV networks take a toned down their annual big pitch to advertisers – and agencies took note.

Double trouble

Frain is optimistic pushing the envelope will pay off. The subscription TV and streaming business has already been trading its sports sponsorships on the Kantar-measured data since February, and with two years’ worth of figures available on the Mediaocean platform as of this month, he’s confident there’ll be “no surprises” come next year.

But no surprises won’t necessarily mean easy sailing. Agencies will now need two ingest two new TV currencies before the new year begins.

“It makes it more complicated for us, and it makes it more challenging to get a cohesive view of total campaign and [Kantar’s] TechEdge is just something else we need to subscribe to,” Zenith’s chief investment officer, Elizabeth Baker, told Mi3. Then there's all the education and retraining agencies will need to go through with staff and clients.

As long as it means better accuracy, and a greater focus on return on investment (ROI), Baker is hopeful the undertaking will be worthwhile – as are others and Foxtel's sales teams have been doing the agency rounds. But with the 2025 negotiation cycle having only just begun, Frain said it’s too early for any firm indicators from the market as to uptake.

Breakups and breakthroughs

What is clear is that the currency coalition of the willing, the Video Futures Collective (VFC), is committed to driving change. Amazon Ads is the latest to throw its weight behind the collective, alongside VEVO, YouTube, Samsung Ads, Disney Advertising and SBS on Demand.

It’s been seven months since the think tank’s launch, Foxtel has well and truly drawn the line in the sand with its former OzTam bedfellows. The breakup was made official last month, and Frain hasn’t shied away from tackling the tension head on – nor pointing the finger.

“We were disappointed by OzTam’s recent assertion of our unwillingness to collaborate,” he said to the crowd on Thursday night. “While now is not the time for more mud-slinging, I do feel compelled for my team, our colleagues and our business partners to say this publicly: we have attempted many times over the last two years to find solutions with OzTam, to address inaccuracies with the panel, to drive a more future-facing agenda, and to join as a shareholder for an equal voice.

“Unfortunately, the board and the shareholders said no, and so we moved in a different direction, one more aligned with the consumer shift to on-demand viewing, and more aligned to our business shift away from linear to digital.”

Foxtel defers to early data from its new currency as case in point – OzTam reported zero ratings on 49 per cent of the network’s half-hour slots in August 2024, versus only 2 per cent with the Kantar solution.

On that point alone, buyers say they can’t blame Foxtel for going it on their own – even if it’ll cause the industry pain in the short.

“If I'm Foxtel as a business, and I'm continually getting zero ratings against some reasonably decent properties throughout the week…I think at some point you've kind of got to ask questions around that,” said Mediahub Sydney GM, Tom Rankin.

“Will it be more painful to get around another system? Yes, it will be, of course. And there's no denying that. But I think the benefits of it and the credibility of it are what changes the paradigm a little bit for me.”

Talk and walk

It’s not all about the politics. The “softened” punch from the last Upfront is backing its words with action. From next year Foxtel will have the first wave of results from its new currency, and Frain confirms that rolling that out to the rest of the VFC is “in the plan” – but there’s still no concrete timeline.

“I think what we've been doing over the last 12 months is making sure we get our own house in order, which I think we've done in record-breaking time.”

For now, the focus is on cross-industry collaboration, and it’s recruited IPG Mediabrands’ Magna and Omnicom Media Group (OMG) as partners on new research projects with Beatgrid and Amplified Intelligence, with results expected in early 2025.

Magna and Beatgrid, with retail group Wesfamers in tow as a test client, will measure reach, frequency, incrementality and brand lift across member platforms to assess the effectiveness of cross-screen advertising, and investigate the impact of advertising on business metrics such as in-store traffic.

OMG will work with Dr. Karen Nelson Field’s Amplified Intelligence to deliver what the VFC claims is the largest Australian study into attention and context amplification for video streaming – they’ll be looking at high attention, low clutter environments to establish the value and impact of premium content across attention metrics (active, passive and non-attention), attention drivers (device, channel, program, daypart and ad length) and attention amplifiers (ad context and demographics).

“I think we've been in a unique position as a local player, to actually work with all of the VFC members to start to add value to the industry," said Frain. That value might not be clear cut to begin with – and he admitted things will likely be messier for the industry in the short-term – but he's optimistic it'll be for the better.

“If I look at other markets, there's multiple currencies in play. For sure, the Australian market is not the US – it doesn't have that scale. But that doesn't mean alternative currencies can't flourish in this industry."

As to whether the industry will be able to some day unite back under the same banner, he's not ruling anything out.

"Do I see a future where everything comes back together? Probably – but under a very different operating model."

Digitally committed

Meanwhile, the network also use the Upfront to confirm its plans to fully digitise inventory across its assets in early 2025 via a partnership with tv beat – the same adtech that has been used by Sky Media in the UK to digitise linear ad impressions.

Per Frain, it’s the missing puzzle piece in Foxtel’s shift from a “TV-centric business to one that's 100 per cent digital”. Last financial year, he said more than half of the company’s revenue was already coming from digital.

“We are arguably already 100 per cent digital because of the return path data we get into the set top box ... What's been missing is, how do we look to trade linear TV like digital – trade it as impressions?”

It means agencies and clients will be able to view their entire Foxtel buy in the same currency – and Frain reckons it goes a step further than the unified trading systems touted by rivals.

“We're talking about impression-based buying across all of our assets. When you think about the other models, between Paramount and Seven, they're still talking about trading television using the same workflow. This is actually changing the workflow and changing the currency from TV ratings to digital impressions. That's the big change.”

Metrics vs impact

For all the talk of media metrics, Foxtel made an effort to signal ROI will be at the forefront, with the new measurement system will be overlaid with data from CommBank IQ and Adgile.

The company said it struck the partnerships in response to client demand for greater ROI reporting on video spend. As Zenith's Baker put it: “Moving away from media metrics to proving ROI is where we want it to go”.

The CommBank IQ deal makes Foxtel the inaugural digital video partner to access de-identified payment data for seven million Commonwealth Bank customers, which is slated to give advertisers the capability to track sales conversions. Foxtel will also draw on the insights to enhance its addressable solution, Characters.

Meanwhile, Adgile’s Catalyst investment allocation tool will be employed to verify impression delivery across Foxtel’s linear and streaming assets, and track performance based on attention, response and conversion.

Frain said having “all of that data in the one place” gives Foxtel “optionality” to “send that data to other research companies that can then help us prove return on investment for clients”. The plan will be to draw on certain category insights – like the CommBank iQ data that suggests Foxtel Group customers spend 73 per cent more on travel than non-customers – when striking agency deals, or to provide analysis on a client-by-client basis.

The partnerships might not be revolutionary – more of a “hygiene factor” per Mediahub's Rankin – but Zenith's Baker said the ROI factor does make them a valuable addition to the measurement suite for buyers and their clients.

Binge bigger 

Foxtel is looking to pump scale into its flagship entertainment platform, introducing a new live and on demand sports content vertical 'direct from Kayo' in what Binge and Kayo chief Julian Ogrin said is a bid to make Binge an "everyday streaming service".

"I think Binge is becoming that utility multiple category service that you either start the day with, when you're starting the day getting news updates, or ending the day just watching channels or catching up on a show. We’re even going to have our music channels like MTV, so you might be entertaining and having MTV in the background with some music videos... It is becoming that utility for whatever lifestyle needs you have in and around the home."

That play is not dissimilar to the strategy deployed on Kayo, and there were some sideline rumblings that the integration could cannibalise its audiences. But Foxtel head of brand solutions Alexandra Hazlehurst said the group is ready to push past that fear and that the risk is relatively small – of the circa 3 million paid users between the two, there's less than 10 per cent audience overlap.

Content-wise, the split clearly strategic, with Binge leaning into women's sport, starting with the AFLW and WBBL grand finals later this year. Next year, that will expand with Women's Gold, Men's Big Bash League, Super Netball and simulcast NRL and and AFL games come winter. New live news channels from Sky News, CNBC and Fox Sport, and live music channels from the likes of MTV will bring the FAST offering on Binge upwards of 40 channels, laying the groundwork for Foxtel to grow the six to seven hours users currently spend on the platform each week. 

"Kayo sports will continue to be unrivalled, but this is about creating an everyday proposition through news, sport, entertainment and and lifestyle," adds Ogrin. 

The push to broaden content on Binge comes ahead of the local arrival of HBO Max early next year, which may strip the platform of some of its most valuable titles, like Game of Thrones spin-off House of Dragon. 

Ogrin gave little away on potential impacts. Foxtel is “clearly aware of each of our content partners plans in the future” but “we certainly haven’t announced anything”, he told Mi3.

As one door closes another might open – with long-running speculation that Foxtel Media could initially provide HBO’s on-ground sales representation.

Given Netflix’ teething troubles in setting up a sales team from scratch, and the importance of local sales know-how and relationships in moving the revenue needle, Warner Bros. Discovery may be mulling that option.