Since launching in May, Foxtel's streaming service Binge has signed up more than 217,000 subscribers, targeting the younger generation who never subscribed to Foxtel.
Screen Producers Australia (SPA) has warned that Free TV Australia's proposed voluntary points system for Australian content would have disastrous consequences for the screen sector.
When the prison gates open on season 8 two new heritage characters arrive on the prison bus, Lou ‘Fingers’ Kelly (Kate Box) and Reb Keane (Zoe Terakes); also entering the building is new General Manager Ann Reynolds (Jane Hall). In episode three, young British hacktivist Judy Bryant (Vivienne Awosoga) joins the inmates and immediately wins the support of the women, and later in the series new character Sheila Bausch (Marta Dusseldorp) enters the compound on remand for mass murder.
Arguably the most stressed players in the broadcasting sector, Foxtel, the Seven and Nine Networks and Network 10 are calling for the scrapping of local content quota obligations.
Leading Australian actress Marta Dusseldorp will join the stellar ensemble cast for Season 8 playing Sheila Bausch who comes to 'Wentworth' on remand for the murder of nine people at True Path, a cult-like lifestyle retreat. Highly intelligent, charismatic and manipulative, Sheila worked as the personal secretary for True Path’s founder, Dr Mendel (Brian Vriends).
When 'Wentworth' returns in 2020, the prison community is still reeling from the aftermath of the bloody siege with a new leader at the helm and four heritage characters from the original Prisoner series set to enter the compound.
Foxtel's low-cost entertainment streaming service Binge offers 10,000 hours of content, rising to 20,000 hours by the end of the year - but no exclusives and relatively few Australian shows.
Foxtel is counting on new entertainment streaming service Binge to help arrest the slide in the platform's subscribers, revenues and profitability.