Previously announced dramas The Last Anniversary and Mix Tape, and returning series The Twelve and Strife will carry Binge’s scripted slate next year as the Foxtel-owned streamer expands to incorporate sports.
The Foxtel Group revealed at its upfronts in Sydney on Thursday that there would be greater synergy between Binge and sports subscription service Kayo, with live and on-demand sport to be available on the former from the end of November.
Further, Sky News, Sky News UK, CNBC, and Fox Sports News will join the existing lineup of available channels on the service, which includes Bloomberg, CNN, and MSNBC.
Binge and Kayo Sports CEO Julian Ogrin said the move was designed to “supercharge” Binge as a platform for entertainment, sport, news, and lifestyle content.
“We know Binge viewers are also sports fans so we’re changing the streaming game and bringing the best of Kayo Sports – live and on-demand – to Binge subscribers,” he said.
“And we’re not stopping there, we’re also making live and on-demand news available and adding thousands of hours of lifestyle content to the platform too.”
The announcement comes 12 months after Foxtel announced Binge’s first foray into features, with Nick Waterman’s screen adaptation of Paul Kelly’s Christmas classic How to Make Gravy, starring Hugo Weaving and Daniel Henshall, which will premiere on December 1. The film is being produced by Warner Bros. International Television Production Australia (WBITPA), in partnership with Waterman and Washington’s Speech & Drama Pictures.
It was preceded by the commissioning of Mix Tape, an Australian-Irish co-production between Aquarius Films and Subotica, with the four-part adaptation of Jane Sanderson’s novel of the same name going into production in Sydney in May ahead of a Dublin shoot the following month. The story stars Teresa Palmer and Jim Sturgess as former lovers who reconnect through the music of their generation.
Palmer also stars in Blossom Films and Made Up Stories’ upcoming dramedy The Last Anniversary, based on Liane Moriarty’s 2005 novel, playing a woman who inherits a house on the mysterious Scribbly Gum Island. The series, currently in post-production, has been sold to the BBC in the UK and AMC Networks’ streamer Sundance Now in the US.
Of the returning series, cameras rolled on the second season of Strife, a Made Up Stories and Fifth Season production, in Sydney in August, with Asher Keddie back to play publisher Evelyn Jones. Last month, Binge announced that Easy Tiger and WBITVPA had begun shooting the third season of Sam Neill-led courtroom drama The Twelve in WA.
Leading Binge’s unscripted slate Ronde Media docu-soap reality original series Billion Dollar Playground, which like Mix Tape and The Last Anniversary, was part of the 2023 upfronts. The series follows uber-wealthy guests who pay a premium for high-end vacation homes, as world-class staff service their round-the-clock demands. There is also the third season of Real Housewives of Sydney, produced by Matchbox Pictures. Lifestyle series Selling Houses Australia, produced by Warner Bros. International Production Australia, and The Great Australian Bake Off, produced by BBC Studios Productions Australia, are the other returning Australian titles.
Foxtel will welcome upcoming drama from US service Peacock and Sky in the UK next year, including the Melbourne-shot All Her Fault, starring Sarah Snook, along with The Day of the Jackal, Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy, and The Office (US) spin-off The Paper.
It comes as a cloud hangs over the company rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery following confirmation from the latter’s APAC president James Gibbons that the streaming service formerly known as HBO Max would launch in Australia in 2025. Foxtel inked a multi-year deal with the conglomerate last year to continue as the local platform for HBO, Max Originals, Warner Bros. and Discovery programming.
Questions too have been raised over Foxtel’s overall future after News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson reportedly flagged third-party interest in the business, leaving the door open for a possible transaction.
It’s business as usual for Foxtel Group executive director for commissioning and content Alison Hurbert-Burns, however, as she prepares to head to this year’s MIPCOM.
In a statement, she said she was proud to bring a “diverse and high-quality content line-up” to customers.
“From compelling local originals to the most anticipated international series, we offer an incredible range of drama, comedy, lifestyle, reality, and movies across our platforms,” she said.