Four years ago, Foxtel Media was rarely first place on a media plan. Now, we’re perceived as a leader in the future of TV, driving the industry forward with our shift from linear to digital and market-shaking initiatives, including the imminent launch of a new total audience measurement solution and the formation of the Video Futures Collective, the industry thinktank focussing on premium video, taking learning and insight from other global markets.

While it might have seemed easy or simply about disruption from the outside, there’s more to our story. Our transformation is the culmination of a carefully crafted and executed three-year strategy that has delivered outstanding success.

Three tenets of transformation

To pursue a new direction, you have to make big decisions, take bold actions and recognise the need to move on from what doesn’t serve you and push hard to where the game is going, not where it’s been. These are the three tenets of our transformation.

1. Unbind from old ways

To stand out in the industry as a pioneer and leader, we had to walk away from anything that was holding us back or slowing us down in pursuit of our digital ambition. We retired things that weren’t aligned with our strategy to forge our own path and align more closely with the digital future and audience behaviour.

Three critical moments in our strategy were reducing linear trading parameters to trade more digitally, whilst exiting industry bodies where we’d agitated for rapid change.

Leaving the familiar was not an easy decision, but it was crucial to enable a more efficient linear buying product and workflow. Additionally, we chose to step away from industry perspectives that no longer aligned with our definition of "TV" or met our needs in measurement and reporting, but more critically, met the needs or definitions that our clients were pursuing.

The money is not going back to linear. In the new streaming era, advertisers should take action now or be left behind.

2. Forge new, progressive partnerships

Saying goodbye to the old means welcoming something new. We found a new crowd of like-minded progressive business partners that derive mutual benefit from formal and informal collaborations.

In late 2023, we partnered with Kantar Media to develop a solution for accurately measuring the data from our million-plus set-top boxes.

In a market-first, we’re also partnering with leading global TV advertising platform, tvbeat, to convert linear TV spots into digitally tracked and reported impressions. The translation of linear ad impressions into digital will enable improved audience targeting, ad analytics and programmatic trading of linear ad buys. More elements looking and feeling like digital.

Some of our other important new partnerships include CommBank iQ and Adgile. As CommBank’s inaugural partner across video for digital audience and measurement, we’ll leverage the de-identified data of over 7 million people, providing advertisers with unique insights to track precisely how campaigns convert to sales. Meanwhile, our Adgile collaboration will offer independent verification of impression delivery across Foxtel’s linear and streaming platforms, tracking performance and business outcomes based on attention, response and conversion.

But partnerships alone weren’t enough—we aimed to unite diverse leaders to propel the streaming industry forward, which led to the creation of the Video Futures Collective (VFC). Recent additions like Amazon and Vevo join founding members such as Foxtel Media, YouTube, Samsung Ads, Disney Advertising and SBS On Demand. At the 2025 Upfronts, we also unveiled some exciting, new VFC research initiatives with BeatGrid and Amplified Intelligence.

3. Move and motivate the people

Nothing happens when people don’t rally behind the strategy. From the start, we’ve made sure our staff, as well as internal and customer stakeholders, were informed and on board with what we’re doing and why we were doing it.

Training and development have also been integral to successful transformation. We’ve put every one of our sales team through the Media Federation’s digital accreditation training, investing in their learning to prepare them for change.

Most critically, we changed the way our sales team got paid. The commission structure moved from two numbers—TV and digital—to one: total revenue. I can’t overstate the importance of aligning remuneration and reward with the direction we were taking the company in.

Naturally, we also focussed on engaging and motivating our clients as we navigated these significant changes. We understand the challenges they face, often operating under tight budgets and limited resources, which made securing their buy-in essential. To achieve this, we’ve prioritised consistent communication through top-level meetings, regular market updates, targeted trade campaigns, PR efforts, and in-person agency visits.

Celebrating a successful transformation

These three tenets of transformation have led Foxtel Media to consecutive growth over the past five years. It’s incredible to see what we’ve achieved, especially in a challenging economic environment.

This year alone, we’ve experienced 38% per cent growth in digital revenue year-on-year with more than 50 per cent of our revenue coming from premium digital video, onboarded 300 new clients, had returning clients spending 30 per cent more and unlocked 61 per cent in new digital inventory.

Foxtel Media’s transformation is a story of bold vision, strategic execution, and unwavering commitment to progress. By unbinding from outdated practices, forming progressive partnerships, and prioritising our people and clients, we’ve redefined our position in the industry. What was once an afterthought is now a leader driving the future of TV. This journey underscores the power of decisive action and collaboration in shaping a stronger, more dynamic media landscape.