Did you know you can cook bread with steam?
© 2026 Appliancenews. All Rights Reserved.
Despite Sydney being gridlocked following a crash on the Sydney Harbour Bridge hundreds of Australia’s leading advertising agencies and brands, made it to last night’s Foxtel 2025 Upfront, event where the group revealed the power of their offering in of all places an old power station.
Mark Frain, the CEO of Foxtel Media, joined forces with the likes of Samsung Ads executive Alex Spurzem (seen below right) to spruik a new era in media measurement, following Foxtel’s decision to walk away from OzTAM, the measurement organisation owned by Australia’s struggling TV networks, who are fighting their own battles relating to network culture, harassment and the payment for coke and perks, in an effort to secure a story. They are also facing board shakeups well as falling revenues and profits.
The overall consensus among advertising executives that ChannelNews spoke to at the event was that the future for brands and retailers is more about streaming content than free to air, with one executive claiming that the future for brands is streaming, radio and billboards coupled with social media engagement.
Samsung Ads executives outlined how data captured from Samsung devices was being used to fine tune audience reach.
Missing from the event was LG advertising management who are spruiking data captured from LG TV’s.
Frain who was dressed in white, spelt out why the group walked away from OzTAM, claiming that despite repeated meeting with OzTAM management the measurement group had constantly failed to accurately measure the Foxtel platform, that consists of Kayo, Australia’s #1 sports streaming app, BINGE and SkyNews that is now being bundled into both Kayo and BINGE.
Frain (Seen above) said, “We were disappointed by OZTam’s recent assertion of our unwillingness to collaborate,” .
“While now is not the time for more mudsling. I do feel compelled for my team, our colleagues and our business partners, to say that 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”.
He added “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”.
At last night’s event it was announced that BINGE is expanding, adding live sport, news, music and lifestyle content to their existing local and international content which has been seen as a smart move as the content is already running on other Foxtel assets.
Opening the evening was Patrick Delany who has become a target of the free to air networks, following the transformation of Foxtel from a set top box brand, to a key digital content streaming operation, that is now attracting new subscribers following the release of the $79 Hubbl this year while also delivering millions of consumers who actually pay for their viewing experience.
The Hubbl streaming puck that allows both free to air and streamed content to be managed in one app is being sold at both JB Hi Fi and Harvey Norman.
The success of the Foxtel Group has not gone unnoticed with News Corp global chief executive Robert Thomson admitting that the growth of the business which is happening as many overseas streaming operations including Disney and Paramount are struggle had attracted the attention of potential buyers.
Earlier in the week Telstra’s new Chairman Craig Dunn admitted that Telstra would be happy to sell their 35% shareholding in Foxtel as part of any deal.
News Corp who owns 65% of the streaming business could still hold onto a share of the business with insiders claiming that the added benefit of News Corps media reach in Australia “would deliver benefits” to a new owner.
The chief executive of BINGE and Kayo Sports, Julian Ogrin, claims the company is currently “supercharging” the platform.
Samsun’s Ads CEO Alex Spurzem claims that the expansion of Samsung Ads enables native advertising solutions to be delivered across millions of Samsung-powered Smart TVs where Kayo and BINGE is now available.
For the first time, native ad formats can now be integrated into the Samsung Smart TV experience similar to what LG is doing with their WebOS software.
“By bringing our native advertising solutions to market, brands and advertisers can now reach millions of households as soon as they turn their TV on,” says Spurzem.
It also allows marketers to leverage Samsung Ads’ first-party device data for greater targeting, measurability, and insights he claims with this data now integrated into Foxtel Media’s offering.
Following the split with OzTAM Foxtel is now using Kantar Media to deliver a new audience measurement service, ingesting data collected from subscribers’ TV’s and set top boxes using return path data technology.
“Connected TV adoption has exploded pushing penetration towards or above 50 percent in many countries,” he says.
“This has created a huge opportunity for brands and advertisers and the team is excited to drive our fast-growing business into new markets.”
Several attendees at last night’s event which included some of Australia biggest advertising agencies and brands, claim that 2025 could be a turning point for free to air TV networks with the growth in sports viewing on Kayo which is the only streaming network that delivers 4K streaming of NRL, AFL, Supercars and Formular One events seen as being attractive to advertisers over the free to air audience, because of the “Qualified nature of the audience that Foxtel reaches” claimed one attendee.
As for new content Foxtel will begin introducing to BINGE other live sport such as the men’s Big Bash League, some regular season AFL and NRL matches, as well as talk shows AFL 360, NRL 360 and Sunday Night with Matty Johns to the service.
Management claim that while the move risks cannibalising its other existing paid services, with duplicated content across several of its services, including Lifestyle, Kayo and news streaming platform Flash. Foxtel said there is less than 10 per cent overlap of subscribers to BINGE and Kayo.
