Fairfax CEO says Netflix isn't only option Media Man Int

Fairfax CEO says Netflix isn't only option - 28th July 2015

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Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood says there is room in the Australia for multiple streaming TV services and the market won't be dominated by just one, such as overseas giant Netflix.

As Fairfax enters the seventh month of its Stan streaming joint venture with Nine Entertainment, Mr Hywood said streaming services were 'incredibly powerful' and filled a price gap below pay TV rivals such as Foxtel.

'It gives you a depth of entertainment when you want to watch it across multiple devices in your home for ten bucks a month,' he said at an American Chamber of Commerce lunch in Sydney on Tuesday.

'You look at the price and you look at what you get - there is a very broad field to play on here. People can't be assuming that there's only room for one.'

Stan is up against Netflix, Foxtel's Presto, Quickflix and Fetch TV in the streaming market.

Netflix led the market in May with one million subscribers, well ahead of local competitors, according to a Roy Morgan Research survey published in June.

Mr Hywood said with a restructure over the past two years Fairfax now had money to invest in new ventures, and had established new revenue sources beyond traditional advertising and subscriptions in its newspapers and websites.

He said Fairfax had leveraged its audience to put Stan in a strong position at start-up.

'We have the ability to grow not just in the media where we see the opportunities but also organically out of (the company's Events business) and with our Domain business,' he said.

'We are getting ourselves into a position where our growth in digital revenue is offsetting any sort of structural decline in print.'

The Fairfax boss also repeated criticism of Foxtel's move to take a 15 per cent stake in Network Ten.

Foxtel, half-owned by the Rupert Murdoch-controlled News Corp Australia, announced its intention in June and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission head Rod Sims has signalled he will take a 'holistic' view to assessing the deal.

Mr Hywood has said the Murdoch family's media interests across different markets have 'gamed' legislation that limits media owners to just two of the markets of print, radio and television.

'If you put News's interests and the family's interests together you've got, in an environment where you're supposed to have two out of three - either print, radio, TV - what you have in that mix is print, radio, TV, cable,' he said.

He said it was 'completely appropriate' for Mr Sims to take a holistic view.

Mr Hywood criticised the cross-media legislation restricting ownership, saying it discouraged investment in the media sector.

'Let's get something off the table: this is not about Fairfax wanting to buy a free-to-air TV station,' he said.

'This is just about Fairfax saying that there should be a level playing field.'

(AAP)