Foxtel magazine to downgrade editorial content
Subscriber mag to hero TV listings and offer select editorial from May.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under Subscription
EXCLUSIVE:
Viewers flooded with content choices will have less curation from Foxtel when it scales back its subscriber magazine to focus on TV listings, offering less articles and interviews around monthly highlights.
In a statement Foxtel told TV Tonight, “From May 2024 the Foxtel Magazine will have a new-look format hero-ing the channel guide and select editorial features on content for the month ahead.
“Our research shows that our readers favour the channel guide as a go-to resource each month as they plan their next watch so we have evolved the format in line with that feedback whilst continuing to reduce our environmental footprint.”
In 2022 the mag had a readership of 271,000 according to publisher Medium Rare.
It retails at $5.95 when added to Foxtel bundles.
But with the rise in postage in April, there will be no reduction in monthly fees for subscribers.
Foxtel is also revamping its programming highlights to media, no longer sending fortnightly content details, but offering a Binge monthly highlights.
Around 80% of the Entertainment audience within the Foxtel Group is understood to be now via Binge and streaming.
5 Responses
I used to receive a digital version of the magazine through the zinio app and sometimes there was a special price. According to a post on the Foxtel complaints facebook group they have stopped the digital version. Why stop a digital version of something that’s available as a printed product.
It must say something about Foxtel’s audience demographics that there’s still that many of them happy to pay for a printed magazine.
I was still subscribing to the magazine in 2022 but when the price increased from $3.95 to $5.95 I didn’t feel it justified the increase and ended it there. It is an odd move, I would have been less surprised if they were ending it completely as these changes seem bit late given the smaller amount of current subscribers. I took part in a survey about the magazine over a decade ago and my feedback then was that the articles were largely superflous and the listings and basic information about new shows were what I was interested in seeing.
Will more channels be returned to the print listings? The channels with actual print guides have reduced over the years with many dropped completely from the listings, including the kids channels (which I always thought odd), and some where it makes more sense not being there as they offer minimal change from day to day, although Sky News fits that category and is still included.
I gave up Foxtel 6 years ago, so can’t talk about it since then.
But for the 20 years prior, the Foxtel Magazine did not print programme guides for a number of channels – eg the cartoon orientated ones.
And the daily column for stations that were listed was very space limited.
Instead there were recipes, folksy star articles by Golden Globe voter writers, and other irrelevancies.
Seems every editor decided that the last thing people wanted in a TV Guide was programme listings, and
the most important thing people wanted was the editor’s monthly letter.
The magazine’s format should always have been presented like the US TV Guide of the 70’s and 80’s –
meaty and with every individual programme for every individual station.
One time it was free…I used to have platinum package..but then Foxtel starting charging $3.95 per month..so I gave it the flick because I get a free local community newspaper with the guide…my most reliable source is the EPG on the IQ 5..My Foxtel app.(2 weeks in advanced + remote record +account access) …their website site..”Coming Soon”..On TV Tonight app (both FTA and Foxtel) and TV Tonight…as for any gossip on celebrities…I’ll pass because it is all over the internet and media anyway.