Amid "softer" rebrand to take on streaming sector, Foxtel bares teeth at pirates

Australian pay TV and streaming provider Foxtel may have rebranded itself earlier this week with a softened logo to appeal to a wider demographic. But it hasn’t softened its stance against illegal downloading.

It returns to the Federal Court on August 8 to block 17 alleged piracy sites. 

They are YesMovies, Vumoo, LosMovies, CartoonHD, Putlocker, Watch Series 1, Watch Series 2, Project Free TV 1, Project Free TV 2, Watch Episodes, Watch Episode Series, Watch TV Series, The Dare Telly, Putlocker9.is, Putlocker9.to, Torlock and 1337x.

This comes in the wake of successful blocks last December of The Pirate Bay, isohunt, Torrentz, and TorrentHound. 

The application will cost just $850 in all, with $50 paid for each domain; affected ISPs will have 15 days to enact the block. 

Foxtel has committed $1 billion to the rebrand (its first in 22 years) and taking on Netflix and Stan.

Earlier this week, aside from a new logo which wasn’t “aggressive, masculine or shouty” like the old one, Foxtel also announced plans to widen its customer base by offering cheaper subscriptions via a new SVOD service called Foxtel Now and a wider selection of TV and movies content with 60 channels.

Foxtel currently has a 30% household penetration which CEO Peter Tonagh said at its launch in Sydney, had been at that figure for far too long.

“We’re confident of the growth opportunities in the premium segment of the market and in satellite, but more exciting for is that group of the market that is currently paying for content when they’ve never paid for content before,” he said.

A major change in Australians buying content he said is that not too long ago, the choice of subscription content service was a collective household one.

That has changed as more individuals have their own screens, whether it be tablets, mobiles or personal TVs.

Netflix has proven that Australians, especially the younger demo, are happy to pay a minimal monthly fee if they get quality programming.

Analysts have also suggested that the “Netflix effect” will also see them happy to pay for music after accessing ways to get it for free.

At launch, Foxtel Now has 16,000 TV and movie titles in its on-demand library.

It is currently available on desktop via the Google Chrome browser, Telstra TV, iOS and Android mobiles and tablets, and Chromecast. The new Foxtel Now set-top box is due later this year.