iPrimus unmeters ABC TV’s iView: who’s next?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 11 December 2008 12:25

IT Industry - Strategy

So, we know that iiNet, Internode, Westnet and iPrimus are now able to offer unmetered access to ABC TV’s iView service, but where’s Telstra, Optus and the rest?

Internode joined the unmetered iView club yesterday, iiNet subsidiary Westnet is now on board, and iPrimus has also officially announced unmetered iView support.

With iPrimus’ Andrew Sims saying that “This is great for iPrimus’ customers as they can now enjoy a high quality ABC iView service on an unmetered basis”, the question is clear – wouldn’t this be great for Telstra and Optus customers, too?

As Sims says: “Unmetered content, including iView is excluded from our customers’ monthly download allowance, so they’re able to use their data allowance for other web sites and services on the web,” with Sims also noting that “new and innovative content ideas” will come in the New Year to follow the ABC TV iView announcement.

Yes, we know that Telstra already offers a great deal of unmetered content to BigPond members, including a host of its own television programming, including BigPond Sports Weekend and BigPond News.

BigPond also offers paid TV show and movie downloads from its own legal content services, and doesn’t charge BigPond members for the downloaded data.

And other ISPs have copied BigPond’s approach, variously offering unmetered access to gaming servers, iTunes, other video programming and now the ABC’s iView.

Indeed many ISPs have always offered access to file downloads from its servers on an unmetered basis, but in a world of digital media, and in a country with download limits, the ability to offer unmetered content is a great value add that keeps customers happy and stops them from churning over to competitors.

But as Telstra is Australia’s largest ISP, it’s a shame that the ABC and Telstra can’t, as yet, come to a deal to make iView available to all BigPond users.

Continued on page 2, please read on!