| BigPond Sports Weekend - a big challenge to regular sports broadcasters? |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Thursday, 21 February 2008 | |
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Aimed at “redefining the way Australians watch their favourite sports”, the “fast-paced” show will be hosted by Russell Barwick and John Gibbs, with Ali Mutch and Will McCloy at the newsdesk. The show is exclusively available via subscription on Telstra Next G (and 3G) phones at AUD $9.95 per month, or for $1.95 per day, giving most Telstra subscribers a way to watch a new sports show from just about anywhere, although anyone who will want to watch hours of the show this way via their phone will either need to plug it into their charger or ensure they have spare batteries, as extended video streaming certainly does chew up battery life. In addition, anyone can watch online, free of any additional Telstra charges, at BigPond TV, whether they are BigPond subscribers or not. That said, Telstra advises that only ‘most’ BigPond subscribers will be able to watch it without incurring usage of their download data allowance, clearly there’s at least one BigPond plan of some kind that would see you incur usage on your download limit, so be sure to check if you’re a BigPond customer that your usage is indeed ‘free’. And while Telstra don’t specifically mention it, users of other ISPs watching the service will be chewing up part of their download limit to watch, as would be the case with any other online video service, such as YouTube. Telstra offers a range of additional BigPond services above and beyond most competitors to provide a ‘unique’ point of difference, and probably also to make up for the fact they count consumers’ upload activity towards their download limit, but hey, that’s another story. Telstra’s continuing online broadcasting efforts put it squarely in competition with subscription television provider Foxtel (which Telstra owns 50% of), free-to-air TV stations and radio stations, most of whom have a range of sports content of their own on the weekends. So, what sports will be on offer at BigPond Sports Weekend, and what big sporting names do they have lined up for the first episode? Please read onto page 2. |
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