As guest volumes ride the un-natural dip brought on by the pandemic, many hotels have taken the chance to take stock and prepare for the equally volatile, but much more enjoyable, return to a degree of normality.
One such area being assessed is in-room entertainment. A spike in investment by hotels into what their guests are watching in their rooms has sparked a high degree of interest in streaming and broadcast systems such as Foxtel’s Business iQ.
As one system capable of delivering not just streaming of guests’ personal content but access to live news, sport, first-run drama, movies and more, the company has been busy with dozens of new sales and installations since the pandemic began.
For Foxtel National Accommodation Manager, Iain Nelson, there has been a keen interest in hotels making the move to invest and provide guests with a huge range of content for extended periods of time spent in-room.
“What they’re seeing as a plus for the Business iQ is that it’s a complete end-to-end technology platform [that] provides the full interactive content through our satellite channels, as well as access to the libraries of our back catalogues of On Demand movies and TV shows. So it’s an entire platform and that includes streaming and access to live channels, along with the full on screen menu and program guide.
“So I think the appeal is that it’s a one-stop shop for all of that. Whereas that’s never been available, not to that extent, because it is a cloud-based system that is infrastructure light, and truly future proof.”
With so much content available and more time available to watch it, what have guests been consuming? According to Nelson, those in quarantine have understandably been binging TV series, however many channels across the network have been reporting high viewership.
“Drama, sport, our key Premiere, Action and Family movie channels, Sky News is getting very high viewership as you’d expect, especially keeping up to date with the current situation.
“But the escape is obviously important too. Our first run dramas and local dramas are all recording very, very high usage, as well as on demand catch up series like Game of Thrones and Chernobyl.
“What we’re seeing is an appetite for a broader range of content, and the means to stream and cast what the guest wants on top of that, but for a single platform so it is easy for the guest and efficient for the hotel,” Nelson added.
Contact Foxtel Business
T: 1300 736 104