|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Foxtel is a cable television and satellite television company in Australia, formed through a joint venture between Telstra and News Corporation. It began supplying cable TV services to customers in May, 1995. In order to drive subscription take-up at Foxtel, News Corp unsuccessfully attempted to purchase the rights to televise Australian Rugby League (ARL), rights that were then held by businessman Kerry Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL). News Corp subsequently established a rival rugby league franchise in Australia named Superleague. One season of Superleague was played during the 1997 Australian winter and televised by Foxtel. The business rivalry between Superleague and the ARL was intense and the backers of both franchises haemorrhaged money. Rational business practices eventually prevailed and as part of a commercial settlement half of News Corp.'s Foxtel stake was sold to PBL. The Superleague franchise was folded and PBL agreed to share its ARL rights with Foxtel.
Foxtel's shareholders currently comprise Telstra (50% through Telstra Media Pty Ltd) and a joint venture company (Sky Cable Pty Ltd) that is owned by News Corp (25%) and PBL (25%).
Service availabilityFoxtel transmits its cable service via Telstra HFC 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. 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. Telstra's multimedia broadband network was originally the sole delivery system.
Austar, a regional pay TV operator, also carries most Foxtel programming. Austar sells satellite-delivered services to regional Australian markets that are not serviced by Foxtel. Foxtel is Australia's largest pay TV operator. Its programming is currently delivered to about 1.2 million Australian homes either directly or by Foxtel's wholesale customers. Foxtel is available to over 70% of Australian homes. However, pay TV penetration into Australian homes is only about 25%, very low compared with market penetration rates in the USA (over 90%) and in European countries. With its low, widely spread population, Australia remains a challenging Pay TV market and operators face high per-customer distribution costs. However, competition in the Australian pay TV industry is limited and companies such as Foxtel can therefore extract relatively high subscription fees from their customers. This helps to alleviate the high distribution costs. 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. Foxtel DigitalFoxtel 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 NewsCorp owned digital platforms Foxtel uses NDS the OpenTV interactive platform and runs on primarily Pace 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 HFC 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 iQFoxtel 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, exclusively available to Foxtel iQ subscribers will launch in 2007. Foxtel On Demand was launched on the 8th of February and Remote Record was launched on New Years Day, 2007. 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 personal digital recorder. Foxtel On DemandSee Main Article: Foxtel On Demand Foxtel On Demand is a service offered by Foxtel to Foxtel iQ subscribers which allows people to watch selected shows and movies whenever they want. Foxtel On Demand was launched on February 8th 2007 with a variety of programmes and included the entire second season of Love My Way. EncryptionImage:Foxtel iQ.JPG The satellite Foxtel iQ digital set top box. Like BSkyB, Foxtel Digital utilises NDS 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
Channels on the Foxtel Digital ServiceEntertainment
Interactive Applications
Movies
Sports
Interactive Gaming
News and Documentaries
Kids and Family
Music
Foxtel air Digital Audio
Foxtel Box Office (Pay Per View Movies)
Special Interest
Up-Coming Channels
|
Sites |
Searched sites for "Foxtel" |
|
No sites found. |
Sorry, no matching site records were found. |
Want your site listed here?
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
