Quickflix enters voluntary administration
It's a case of no activity with Stan, as Perth-based SVOD service lacks the funds to pay out Nine / Fairfax service.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under Streaming
Perth-based SVOD and DVD rental company Quickflix has gone into voluntary administration, after negotiations with Stan failed to reach an agreement.
Quickflix says the $11.7 million of redeemable preference shares Stan acquired from HBO in 2014 are stopping it from raising the capital it needs.
Nine / Fairfax-owned Stan has demanded either $4m in cash or $1.5 million and all Quickflix’s subscribers in exchange for restructuring the shares.
“Neither alternative presents a viable option for Quickflix. In the first instance Quickflix does not have the funds to make payments to Stan, nor does the company believe it can raise funds from investors for that purpose.
“Neither alternative leaves Quickflix in a position to fund its unsecured creditors nor with capital necessary to take the business forward.
“The company has no other realistic alternative but to appoint voluntary administrators.”
Ferrier Hodgson have been appointed as administrator.
Earlier this month the company cut 15% of its workforce and announced the closure of Sydney and Auckland offices as it prepared to raise a further $2m through an equity sale.
9 Responses
Impressed Fairfax has a pretty blunt yarn about Stan killing off Quickflix (given Stan is Nine / Fairfax owned). Points for transparency.
My $30/mth DVD subscription has been on “pause” most of this year. No, we do not have a streaming-quality Internet, in suburban Wollongong. Find too many DVDs were either Long Wait or Unavailable, and local public library has them for free, particularly the latest. Never been able to figure how their DVDs could be profitable, sending and returning 30 DVDs/mth for $30, postage paid both ways ($30/mth, 3 DVDs at a time plan).
Was a subscriber, but dropped my subscription as the service is much more expensive than other services and it was often cheaper to buy the dvds than watch a series through them. For example, it’s $11 monthly subscription plus $3 per ep of the walking dead. Big Pond movies has no subscription fee and it’s $2 an ep. Mad men was $3 an ep. But Netflix is a $10 subscription no fees per ep and it remembers what ep I last watched.
Do the maths, it’s not worth it.
And the platform was creaky and unstable.
I was a DVD subscriber for years – loved it. But if you’re paying 30 bucks a month as a DVD subscriber and then, on top of that, are being charged the same price for new-release streaming films as any average punter on the street, you can’t help but feel ripped off.
This writing has been on the wall for a long time. Frankly, I’m surprised that it has survived this long.
It would have to be the longest Road to voluntary administration ever taken by an Australian company.
No quick fix for Quickflix then?
Not surpised, they’ve bungled every deal they had lined up in the past year.
The writing has been on the wall for both models of Quikflix for over the last two years unfortunately. Not at all surprised by this move.