Pay TV to reveal 2009 slate

Foxtel and Austar will announce their network line-ups  for 2009 at an industry event later this month.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the “upfront” event by MCN, the advertising sales arm of Foxtel and Austar, will copy the way in which US broadcasters set up their programming formats and advertising deals for the year ahead. It signals the competitive intensity expected over the next three months as commercial free to air broadcasters position themselves for the launch of their additional digital channels next year and their advertising rate deals for 2009.

MCN’s chief executive, Anthony Fitzgerald, said pay TV would pass $300 million in ad revenues next year – most of it coming from the free-to-air TV networks – and repeated earlier claims that pay TV would achieve advertising growth of 15 per cent next year.

Mr Fitzgerald said, “We have a very aggressive story to tell and, without doubt, there are a number of advertisers and agencies who now understand the media landscape has really changed and there is no turning back. We’re now looking at multi-channel, multi-platform communications solutions but, frankly, there are still some agencies and a number of advertisers who really don’t get it. They’re still pumping out the same TV schedules they were doing last century. Many advertisers are still significantly under-investing in this medium, given our overall performance.

“Five years ago subscription TV was constantly looking to the free-to-air networks to buy content to run on our platform. Today our level of quality first-run programs is now greater than any network, and they’re running repeats of our content in prime time. We have a very strong story to tell.”

Source: SMH.com.au