Pay television operator Foxtel is to radically reduce the amount of content available on its streaming service Foxtel Play.

Foxtel Play will see 19 channels removed from its offering from June 5.

The move emerged through an announcement on Foxtel’s community page.



Foxtel Play is Foxtel’s entry-level offering aimed at customers who do not want to subscribe to the full Foxtel service including the IQ box.

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The development comes a few weeks after reports that Foxtel was set to rebrand Play as Foxtel Now.

As of June 5, Foxtel Play will no longer offer BoxSets, 13th Street, Binge, Syfy, Discovery Science, Animal Planet, Lifestyle You, Style, World Movies, CNN, Smooth, BBC World News, CNBC, Max, CMC, Eurosport News, Foxtel Arts, MTV Music and MTV Dance.

Community manager, Nik Kingsman wrote: “We wanted to let you know that we’re making some changes to the live services on Foxtel Play from Monday 5 June 2017.

“Sadly, we’ll be saying goodbye to some services from Foxtel Play but the good news is, they’ll still be available through our broadcast service,” he wrote.

According to Foxtel Play’s updated pricing and packing, from June 5, all shows on the channels will be unavailable both as they are broadcast and on demand.

Foxtel’s push into the streaming video world has been a bumpy ride so far. Its joint venture with Seven, Presto, was closed after just a few months after costing the company $21m. Customers were then moved over to Foxtel Play.

Foxtel, which is owned by News Corp and Telstra, has seen its revenues decrease in recent months, thanks to a drop in subscribers.

Community users commenting on the Foxtel announcement speculated that the changes could either be because of those loss of rights to rival streaming services such as Stan and Netflix, or an attempt to drive customers from the cheaper Foxtel Play to a full Foxtel subscription. Foxtel community managers to did not respond to further questions on the post.

A spokesperson for Foxtel told Mumbrella: “Periodically we make changes to our proposition in our push to give customers the content they want, delivered how they want to watch it. Most of the content from the broadcast channels is still available on demand, which is how people are increasingly using Foxtel Play.

“In December, we lowered the entry point for Foxtel Play to $10 per month, making Foxtel more accessible than ever. Foxtel Play customers will continue to enjoy access to the best choice of blockbuster movies, new shows and complete seasons, including every new HBO drama and Foxtel originals, as well as live sport.”