Foxtel calls on wisdom of the clouds

Content Delivery

They don't get the other side either. While they suck as a content provider, they also suck at the content delivery.

For years they have insisted on only providing content on their limited HFC network which only passes a fraction of the population. They tested IP STB's years ago but needed to recoup the massive cost of the HFC deployment where they decide to race Optus down the same streets.

They have done everything possible since then to try to stop the deployment of IPTV until recently deciding to deploy an xbox client.

What they should be doing is working WITH every major ISP to deploy foxtel via IP. There's only 5 major ISP's in australia - how hard would it have been to put a connection into each one of those ISPs cores and then worked with them to deploy multicasting.

Instead, they now have to play catchup with FetchTV who have played a far smarter game.

You'll be glad you did

I certainly haven't looked back since I gave up mine. You just realise that no matter how shit the TV is most of what you watch is still on Free-to-air so why bother paying. Now if they offered per program, or per series subscriptions at a reasonable price they may have something to offer instead of the bundle of turds they currently retail. That you pay for an HD box then an extra $10 for the HD version of the channels you've already subscribed to says it all.

There's a reason they call it the "idiot's lantern"

We told Foxtel where to stick their set top box when they initially brought out digital cable (we had an analogue box).

They tell us they give us "choice". Yeah? You give us choice of bundles, so we have to buy subscriptions to three or four of those bundles to get the half dozen channels we *are* interested in, as well as the three dozen channels we couldn't care less about.

I've actually rediscovered radio in a big way. Feeding my brain and imagination rather than letting them rot. Apart from the odd thing on the ABC, which I can retrieve via a podcast freely anyway, there's nothing on the television that interests me.

Consequently when I'm home alone, the television gets completely ignored. Likely when I move into a place of my own, I will not be purchasing a television set. Between internet news services, and the radio (including shortwave), there's plenty to check out, and it doesn't necessarily demand that I sit there and stare at a screen at a given moment.

With web pages, I can bookmark a page and come back to it. In the case of radio I can be doing things that require I keep my eyes focused on the task at hand whilst listening, such as my regular day job, or even riding the bicycle to and from the workplace. How hard is it to stick a radio on-board? Not very. Try doing that with Foxtel.

Want talk-back radio? Plenty of commercial stations that you can ring into. Alternatively, if you don't like a presenter driving the agenda, get an amateur radio license, and join a net, a real-time many-to-many discussion which can take place whilst at home, or mobile. Talking in an interactive way (and not just typing on a keyboard like this) is a good way to keep the mind active, and is a lot more engaging than the box you just turn on and idly sit in front of.