He was attracted to the world of entertainment and media, and thought that conditions would be ripe in Australia for the venture thanks to good broadband connectivity, device penetration and Hollywood studios wanting to build Australian audiences.
“But back then when we started that was very much in the future.”
Langsford says competition was strong in the early days from Telstra’s DVD rental service and a Packer-backed DVD venture.
“We were the little guy. While we couldn’t compete with the depth of our pockets because we were little, or our marketing budget, we thought we could compete by being the innovator and working rapidly.”
Langsford says the approach worked – as they soon acquired both competitors.
However, in 2012, the business “hit some wobbles”, Langsford says.
“That meant we had to right-size the business, and take control of our costs and do some rationalising. I think that was healthy for us and it was a necessary process, and to have a strong rebased platform from which to grow.”
He says the company has since invested “considerably” in rolling out digital services. It now employs around 50 staff, predominantly in technology and marketing.
“It’s been a year of building lots of capacity into the business so that we can really scale up, to drive double-digit growth in terms of customer numbers and revenues alike,” he says.
A key goal for 2014 is to add more variety of content by securing stronger deals with UK and US entertainment distributors.
“As we add more devices and increase our audience potential reach, we then go back to Hollywood and say there is even more potential for us to reach customers with your content, please license it to us,” he says.
“There is no question that there isn’t high double-digit growth available here for us in Australia. I see no reason why reason why we can’t be multiple-millions of subscribers down the track, so that is the prize that we are going for.”
Melinda is a business writer and editor and helps companies to bring their brand stories to life through her small business, Oliver Content. Melinda was previously the content manager for KPMG Australia, an editor of SmartCompany, and spent many years as a journalist.
