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Foxtel

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Foxtel
Company typeJoint venture between
IndustryPay television
Founded1995
Headquarters
North Ryde, New South Wales
,

 Australia
Key people
Kim Williams, CEO
Bruce Akhurst, Chairman
ProductsFoxtel Digital, Foxtel iQ
$A4million
Number of employees
3,300
Websitewww.foxtel.com.au

Foxtel is a pay television company in Australia, formed through a joint venture between Telstra, News Corporation and Consolidated Media Holdings. It began supplying cable television services to customers in 23 October 1995,[3] with subsequent expansion allowing for satellite and cellular phone network broadcasting.

History

In October 1995, Foxtel commenced a 20 channel service, delivered over the Telstra Hybrid Fibre Coaxial network.

In May 1998, Australis Media, the owner of a satellite television service known as Galaxy, was declared insolvent. Foxtel immediately commenced supplying programming to Galaxy's subscribers on an interim basis. In 1999 Foxtel was able to significantly boost its customer base by acquiring Galaxy subscribers from the liquidator of Australis Media and to commenced offering its services on a satellite platform.[citation needed]

In 2002, a Content Sharing Agreement between Foxtel and Optus Television was approved by the ACCC[4]

Foxtel's shareholders comprise Telstra (50%, through Telstra Media Pty Ltd) and joint venture company Sky Cable Pty Ltd that is owned by News Corporation (25%) and Consolidated Media Holdings (25%). It shares many features with the Sky Digital service in the United Kingdom, including iQ, the electronic program guide, a similar remote control, and Red Button Active.

Foxtel has grown rapidly in 2007, with most of Foxtel's highest-ever rating events coming this year, including the 2007 AFC Asian Cup quarter final between Australia and Japan, which drew an average of 419,000 viewers,[5] an Australian pay television record.

Availability

Foxtel transmits its cable service via Telstra hybrid fibre-coaxial cable into the Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth metropolitan areas. Foxtel also transmits its satellite service into these cities as well as most regional areas of Western Australia and the cities of Newcastle, Central Coast and Canberra. However, satellite service is not available at user sites where Telstra cable is available. Foxtel on Mobile, launched on Telstra's Next G Network in late 2006 and is now available within Telstra Next G (HSDPA/850MHz) coverage areas, which covers 98% of the population.

Telstra's network and Foxtel were created to combat the threat posed to Telstra's local call business by the combination of Optus Vision (now known as Optus TV) content bundling with Optus' local telephony services; Foxtel was the content arm of Telstra's defence strategy, while Telstra's multimedia broadband network was originally the sole delivery system.

In 2005, Foxtel and Optus Television agreed to a content-sharing arrangement. Programming competition between the two companies has now dissipated.

Austar, a regional pay television operator, also carries most Foxtel programming. Austar sells satellite-delivered services to regional Australian markets that are not serviced by Foxtel.

Foxtel subscriber growth from 1995 to 2007[6][7]

Foxtel is Australia's largest pay television operator. Its programming is currently delivered to over 1.5 million Australian homes either directly or by Foxtel's wholesale customers. Foxtel is available to over 70% of Australian homes. However, pay television penetration into Australian homes is only about 25%, very low compared with market penetration rates in North America (over 90%) and in Eurozone countries[citation needed]. This is due to the fact that Australian pay-TV fees are more expensive than the US ones.

Foxtel announced its maiden annual profit in 2006, more than 10 years after it commenced services. The installation and maintenance of Foxtel services is Telstra's responsibility. In many markets Telstra has outsourced installation and maintenance to large communications contractors, including ABB Communications and Siemens-Thiess Communications Joint Venture.

In 2007, Network Ten formed an agreement with Foxtel to allow them to carry a digital version of Ten's programming. Included in the deal is electronic program guide data, which allows Foxtel iQ users to schedule recordings on Ten. Before the agreement, Ten was carried in an analogue format on cable only.

In 2008, Seven Network finally entered an agreement to allow Foxtel to carry its SD signal on the soon to be launched Optus D3 satellite.

Channels on Foxtel

Main article: List of Foxtel channels

Services

Although originally launching in 1995 with just a cable service, Foxtel has branched out into many new services since its inception.

Foxtel Digital

File:Foxtel.svg

Foxtel launched its digital service (Foxtel Digital) in March 2004. The service is loosely based on another of News Corporation's subscription providers, BSkyB. Features of the digital service include:

Like many other News Corporation-owned digital platforms, Foxtel uses NDS Group encryption system, electronic program guide and digital video recorder services, the OpenTV interactive platform, and primarily runs on Pace Micro Technology set-top boxes.

Foxtel's satellite service transmits exclusively from the Optus C1 satellite on a frequency of 12.438GHz and adjacent frequencies. The Telstra hybrid fibre-coaxial cable carries Foxtel at frequencies of approximately 560MHz (downstream) and 2.4MHz (upstream).

As of April 2007, all Foxtel subscribers are using the digital set-up, making Foxtel Digital synonymous with the standard Foxtel service.

Foxtel iQ (current model)

The Foxtel iQ logo
The Foxtel iQ logo

Foxtel has also launched Foxtel iQ, a timeshifting personal digital recorder, in which subscribers are able to record programs onto a hard drive inside the set-top unit for later viewing. Foxtel iQ also allows viewers to use the rewind or pause features during television programs. Two new services, On Demand and Remote Record, launched in 2007. Remote Record was launched on 1 January 2007, and On Demand on 8 February 2007. This service is based on Sky+, which was launched on News Corporation's UK television platform Sky in 2001.

The satellite Foxtel iQ set top box

Pace Micro Technologies are the set top box provider for iQ, of which they claim that the cable version of iQ is the first DVB-based cable digital video recorder.[8]


Foxtel iQ2 (High Definition)

Foxtel's second generation Foxtel iQ, Foxtel iQ2 will launch alongside the upcoming High Definition service to be launched by mid 2008. Equipped with a 320Gb Hard Drive, iQ2 is capable of recording 30 hours of HD and 90 hours of SD content and will offer HDMI connectivity [9]

The iQ2 will be equipped with four tuners, allowing users to record two programs at once while watching a third live. The fourth tuner is reserved for on demand content.

Foxtel iQ1

Foxtel have been stating in their online blog that an minor upgraded version of the original iQ will be launched along side the iQ2 to be called the iQ1, Foxtel's plan is to have all customers migrated to the iQ1 or iQ2 within the next few years.

Foxtel HD+

Foxtel announced their High Definition service called Foxtel HD+ on January 30, 2008 and stated that it will be available by mid 2008. Initially the service will offer 4 channels in High Definition, Fox Sports HD, ESPN HD, BBC HD and a mixed Documentary channel showing content from both Discovery HD and National Geographic Channel HD, as well as Foxtel Box Office HD and a retransmission of the free-to-air networks high definition channels (ABC1, SBS, Seven, Nine and Ten) to cable customers. Foxtel are to launch several more HD, and SD channels from mid 2009 after the launch of the Optus D3 satellite. [10]

Foxtel HD+ will be broadcast in MPEG-4 and will offer channels in both 720p and 1080i

Foxtel's coverage of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, 2010 Winter Olympic Games and 2012 Olympic Games will be available in High Definition.

Pricing and availability are yet to be announced.

Foxtel On Demand

Foxtel On Demand is a service offered by Foxtel to iQ subscribers that allows people to watch selected shows and movies whenever they want. Foxtel On Demand was launched on 8 February 2007, with a variety of programmes and included the entire second season of Love My Way.

The service is available to all Foxtel iQ customers as part of the service, however the programming able to be played is typically restricted to the channels that the customer is subscribed to. For example, customers not subscribed to the movie channels are not be able to view the stored movies.

On January 30 it was announced that the upcoming HD+ service will feature High definition on demand movies from Foxtel box office which will be available for 48 hours from the time of purchase. Currently box office only features standard definition movies screening every half hour which are available from the time of purchase until 6am. Like on the current Foxtel IQ On Demand, these movies will also be pre-downloaded to the hard drive, though the bigger hard drive in the IQ2 should allow for a wider selection.

Operation

The On Demand service provides programs determined by Foxtel. The iQ box uses a separate partitioned section of the hard drive to download and store the programs and movies. In the On Demand menu, the user has the ability to preview the program before watching, a synopsis, rating, and the duration left before the program is removed from viewing. At present, Foxtel is providing new material every Thursday, and each program has a duration of seven or 14 days before being deleted.

Channels

In Foxtel's introduction video, it displays a variety of channels that content will be shown from. It is unknown yet whether more of Foxtel's channels will provide content in the future. Foxtel does not make public which shows and films will be available to On Demand. Movies that are shown generally consist of recent screenings of premiere movies on the movie channels.

See also: List of Foxtel channels

Mobile Foxtel

Launched in late 2006 to coincide with Telstra's NextG 3G Mobile phone network, Mobile Foxtel (previously Foxtel By Mobile) offers 12 standard channels of programming for a small subscription fee, optimised for mobile devices. At present the channels available are:[11]

With the exception of CNN, Fashion TV, Eurosportsnews and FoxSportsNews, which are direct simulcasts of the actual channel and Sky News channels which are taken from the Sky News Active service, all channels are pre-produced loops that do not directly correlate to the full scale satellite/cable channel. At present, a limit of 200 minutes per month, with 15 minutes per session, may apply to the service, although this has not been strictly enforced.[11]

Foxtel magazine

Foxtel's magazine, simply titled Foxtel, is the television listing magazine for Foxtel subscribers. It offers daily listings for most of the 130 channels offered on the platform, and is the only medium that subscribers can find information and recommendations on programming for the entire month.

Foxtel's magazine is Australia's highest-circulating paid-for monthly magazine, reaching over 815,000 homes every month.[12] It is published for Foxtel by ACP Magazines, and distributed to Foxtel subscribers (who choose to pay for this service) by the postal service.

Encryption

Like the UK's Sky, Foxtel Digital utilises NDS Group services, including their Videoguard encryption system (for both cable and satellite). This is a change from previously using Irdeto and more recently Irdeto 2 on their satellite service.

Investments

References

  1. ^ Foxtel
  2. ^ Foxtel
  3. ^ FOXTEL's 10th Birthday Bash
  4. ^ ASTRA History of Subscription TV
  5. ^ "Japan Game a TV Record".
  6. ^ "Get the Picture - Pay TV - Subscriber numbers - By operator". Australian Film Commission. 15 January 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ "Foxtel delivers subscriber, profit and TV viewing share growth" (Press release). Foxtel. 20 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-22. {{cite press release}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ Pace to Launch World's First DVB Cable PDR for payTV
  9. ^ HD on Foxtel - Foxtel iQ2
  10. ^ HD on Foxtel - FAQs
  11. ^ a b Mobile Foxtel
  12. ^ ACP Magazines - Foxtel
  13. ^ About XYZnetworks

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