Shaping the Future of Video: Toby Dewar on What’s Next for the Video Futures Collective

When Foxtel Media launched the Video Futures Collective in March 2024, the vision was ambitious yet simple: create a space where the industry's brightest minds could come together, ask the tough questions, and tackle the challenges shaping Australia's digital video revolution.

“The Video Futures Collective started with the view that the market needed to come together to champion the role of video and streaming as a collective,” shares Toby Dewar, Customer Engagement Director for Foxtel Media.  

Almost two years from inception, the VFC has grown to now include eight major international and Australian organisations – Amazon, Disney, Foxtel Group, Netflix, Samsung, SBS on Demand, Vevo, and YouTube. “There's no other market anywhere in the world that has this kind of collective - never before have all those bodies met in one room under one umbrella ever, locally or globally, so the fact that we've done that is huge,” explains Toby.  

When Data Tells the Story 

The industry had a problem that nobody was talking about, and Toby along with the rest of the VFC knew it. "We looked at what the optimal level of video investment was; there was no evidence in market, no tangible insight that helped clients understand what that percentage is," he explains. 

Over the past 12 months, the VFC tackled this head-on, partnering with three external research companies including Adgile, Analytic Partners and Amplified Intelligence.

"What we tried to do is give them a benchmark of what to start with for their own campaigns." 

The results were exactly what they'd hoped to find.

"Video, when you look at it against other channels, was twice as effective in terms of its contribution," Toby reveals. The methodology was just as important as the findings: "It's us having third party research companies looking at actual sales data and making that correlation very evident." 

Three separate studies with each of the research companies delivered one powerful conclusion. "We've commissioned three projects that have all proven the opportunity to invest more in video," enabling the collective to "go back to the market and have them rethink and recalibrate what they spend."  

The Next Evolution 

After almost two years, the VFC is undergoing its most significant transformation yet. "The VFC now is working through setting up its own independent position. It's gone from a think tank led by Foxtel Media to something independent; a formal body to focus on industry change," Toby explains. 

This transformation isn't just about structure – it's about speed and impact. "The ability for us to move faster and to realise the change that we're seeking, we need to be independent to do that." 

What drives this evolution is a shared customer focus that connects all the partners.

"The reality is our customers are the same as Amazon, Netflix, and Disney, so it doesn't matter what we want, because we always do things through the lens of what the customer wants," Toby reflects.

"That's why there's such strong alignment – we're just so relentlessly driven towards the same vision; what do our customers need? Therefore, let's build it." 

This shift opens up exciting new possibilities. "The fact that we'll be independent, have more investment and move quicker means that some of the stuff that takes time as a think tank will be faster now as a formal body." 

The Bigger Picture 

Toby sees the, work as going beyond industry metrics and focuses on what matters most.

"We are not just contributing back to our own business, we want to see the industry thrive and in doing that, opportunity comes," he shares. "The quality of the experience improves, and the sustainability of the advertising model which this business needs, also improves." 

That commitment to industry leadership hasn't gone unnoticed.

"The feedback that I love getting, is that we go above and beyond to contribute back to the industry," Toby explains. "I think that's where the broader benefit to Foxtel Group lies.

"Ultimately if we get an element of increased share, we can start to see digital revenues grow, and the benefit across the business is significant.

"I love the tension that this business has," Toby explains, "because we're always going to be a business that needs to balance what a viewer wants, and what an advertiser wants. That’s what keeps challenging me.

"I love sitting in a boardroom where I've got global brands having one conversation and I'm the person that's orchestrating where that conversation goes," he reflects. "We're not dictating but influencing that outcome.

"Recently in the boardroom the rest of the VFC stopped for a moment and acknowledged my own contribution, in terms of how we've just driven it, we've cared for it, we've backed it." 

The Road Ahead for the VFC 

The VFC's trajectory couldn't be more exciting right now, and Toby believes we're standing at the threshold of our most transformative chapter yet.

“We've worked extremely hard to set up the VFC, and now we will start to realise the benefits of being investment, support and recognition, so I'm excited by that.  

“I’m also excited to see the market starting to bounce back a bit, and there’s a lot of optimism around that,” explains Toby.