Australian pay-TV targets double ad revenue

net1

Pay-TV operators in Australia said they will double their advertising revenues to AU$200 million (E122 million)within two years, as Foxtel this week unveiled plans for banks, phone and car companies to lead the charge into interactive TV advertising by March next year, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Interactive ads will be used as a key bargaining chip by Foxtel to lure another AU$100 million from free-to-air networks; pay TV's current advertising base is approaching AU$100 million, with Foxtel's sales arm, MCN, controlling about 80 per cent.

Although Foxtel's early interactive commercials will be little more than viewer-controlled pop-up information screens and remote-control generated requests for product samples and brochures, MCN claimed this week that companies in financial services, automotive and packaged consumer goods were ‘lining up' for the new format.

MCN's CEO, Anthony Fitzgerald, said pay channels such as Fox 8, Fox Sports and music channels such as Channel V would be the first to run interactive ads.