Telstra hints at fresh opportunities across new growth areas

At an investor briefing yesterday, Telstra chief David Thodey referred in passing to a few potential areas of growth that held out exiciting opportunities but the paucity of new detail have barely cheered interested investors.

Australian newpaper The Age reported his passing reference to Telstra being the preferred tenderer for a multi-billion dollar, Australian defence communications contract was vague giving little detail on the time frame and the contribution it was expected to make to revenue or profit.

The report said  though this was a clear positive, but without any numbers the extent of gain was difficult to gauge. However, in the four-hour investor briefing from Telstra the most interesting information was the prospect of pay TV operator Foxtel's penetration increasing from 30 per cent to 50 per cent.

Given that Telstra owned 50 per cent of Foxtel, such a customer gain was also an important piece of news, but here too little detail was given on how this could be achieved, other than by offering what was known in the business as a triple-play offer - bundling the pay TV service with landline and broadband.

It seems Telstra was reluctant to upstage Foxtel management, till a sale of James Packer's Consolidated Media (which owns 25 per cent of Foxtel) to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (See: Way cleared for CMH takeover by Murdoch's News Ltd).

Foxtel would now be held 50 per cent by News corp and Telstra.