A cleaner look for Foxtel’s website, unveiled earlier this month, is the visible part of a major revamp of the Australian pay-TV operator’s digital marketing, as it seeks to energize revenue and subs growth.

CEO Richard Freudenstein wants to win over people who regard the service as too expensive or unnecessary or both, boosting Foxtel’s household penetration – stubbornly stuck at a 30% threshold – to 50% within five years, while fending off growing competition from online rivals.

Stan, a paid streaming service from broadcaster Nine Entertainment and publisher Fairfax Media, debuted in late January, while global SVOD leader Netflix is readying an Australian version to go live next month.

Foxtel has already launched its own paid offering, Presto, while bringing down prices, simplifying channel packs and adding broadband bundles for its core pay-TV service.

It became apparent that Foxtel’s main website needed to be rebuilt too – both the external design, to improve the consumer experience and direct sales, as well as behind-the-scenes analytics for better go-to-market execution overall.

The site was already attracting about 1.3 million unique visits a month, while contributing a double-digit percentage slice of overall sales. It did so, however, while conveying a poor image of Foxtel’s brand and products, to subscribers and non-customers alike.

“The feedback we consistently got was that people didn’t know what to do once they got to the site, they didn’t understand our packaging and tiering, and they didn’t understand what content they got with each package,” recounts Foxtel’s director of online, Geoff Kwan.

The situation was little better for existing customers, struggling to manage their existing accounts, let alone upgrade.

“We didn’t make ourselves easy to deal with,” Kwan tells Media Business Asia. “Adding to that, our reputation as a used-car salesman permeated the site, whereby customers would be annoyed by the onslaught of better offers only new customers got.”

Data and Design

All that has changed, from a greater emphasis on the rack rate to a new web chat function incorporated in the new design. Navigation is simpler too, with first-time visitors offered two choices, ‘Get Foxtel’ and ‘Got Foxtel’ to steer them to relevant sections of the site.

“We conducted lots of user testing and research,” Kwan says.

At the same time, Kwan has implemented a new way to track, segment, and target consumers, commissioning Krux, a data management company, to help capture on-site and off-site browsing behavior.

Over time, this capability will be extended across Foxtel’s 19 owned-and-operated TV channel sites in addition to other information sources, such as viewing data and TV guide usage.

Kwan is also looking to share audience data with one to two key channel partners, to deepen targeting and personalization.

There is still plenty to be done, from ramping up internal resources to optimizing the online sales journey, in addition to extending upgrades across all of Foxtel’s online properties.

“We strive to be easy to deal with,” Kwan says. “Deeply linked to that is the task of improving advocacy and changing perceptions of Foxtel, but also to improve Arpu and sales.”

That requires broader implementation from the organization as a whole. “We have a number of building blocks from a digital perspective,” Kwan adds. “Now we need a company-wide data strategy, to tie it all together.”