The ink is barely dry on the DAZN acquisition of Foxtel, and already the tremors are being felt. Around 100 Foxtel employees have received pink slips as the newly British-owned company begins restructuring. While the $3.4 billion deal, finalizing DAZN’s takeover of Foxtel Group from News Corporation, marked the end of a 30-year media relationship, it also raised questions about the future of certain Foxtel ventures.
The job cuts have primarily hit Foxtel’s marketing and engineering departments, with some positions within the Hubbl streaming aggregator also affected. A Foxtel spokesperson stated that the company remains “committed” to Hubbl, pointing to positive customer feedback since the platform’s 2024 launch. Still, the spokesperson’s carefully worded statement about finding the best way to “maintain Hubbl as a more mature business” doesn’t exactly scream unwavering confidence.
Foxtel insists the staff reductions are part of a “transformation” towards streaming services and a move to leverage DAZN’s global engineering resources. They also mention sharing their own product and tech expertise with DAZN, a supposed two-way street of corporate synergy. Whether this collaboration will truly benefit both entities or simply streamline Foxtel into a more DAZN-shaped mold remains to be seen. For now, the focus is on the employees who are now out of work and the lingering uncertainty around Hubbl’s long-term prospects in the increasingly crowded Australian streaming market.
