Foxtel Lays Off 100+ Staff, More Cuts Tipped
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Foxtel who are struggling to hold onto premium subscriptions customers following the launch of Netflix has laid off more than 100 employees.

There is also speculation that current CEO Richard Freudenstein could take up a new role overseas for News Corporation. 

While executives are refusing to comment on the shock layoffs, ChannelNews has been told that both Telstra and News Corporation are concerned that premium customers who in the past paid over $150 a month to get Foxtel services are now downgrading their services to sub $75 a month with the prime attraction being the sports package and select drama packages. 

This audience are now paying $14 a month to get Netflix as opposed to investing in a Foxtel premium subscription.  

Mumbrella claims that more than 100 jobs have been eliminated or outsourced, with the call centres at Robina and Moonee Ponds, at the centre of the job cuts. 

They also claimed that many of the redundancies have been on front end services, with a major shakeup at the Pay-TV installation companies, including Downer and IGSM, who will be losing their pre-call teams as the company moves to what its management has described as “different way of working together.

ChannelNews who has also witnessed firsthand the problems associated with the recently launched iQ3 Foxtel box. Scrolling and accessing content is brutally slow compared to the speed of a Fetch TV Box. Despite upgrades users are still having problems with the Foxtel offering.  

In an email to staff, Vince Buscema, director of customer installations and supply chains at Foxtel promised the new “Command Centre” project would help streamline operations and installations of Foxtel.

This would include “a new system that will schedule Technicians where they are needed according to their location, maximising on the job time and minimising travel time” and more centralised call centre operations.

A spokesperson for Foxtel confirmed the redundancies but declined to identify the jobs that have been cut.

Last August Foxtel claimed record growth in its subscriber base with an 8.6 per cent year-on-year surge, however it later conceded that these numbers had been inflated through the inclusion of low value subscription video on demand users from Presto. 

According to Foxtel’s company profile the Pay-TV operator employees more than 2,800 staff.