Foxtel comes to T-Box

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 19 June 2011 20:17

Your IT - Entertainment

Telstra will launch, next Sunday June 26, a range of Foxtel content to users of its T-Box connected to Telstra's cable broadband services, with the same offering to be available over Telstra ADSL a couple of months later, all quota free.

Prices will start at $19.50 per month, with no fixed term contracts, and for customers taking some of Telstra's Complete Home Bundle services, announced last month, this price will be discounted by $10. The discount will apply to the $109, $139 and $159 100G, 200G and 500G per month offerings.

For $19.50 customers will get eleven channels: Fox8, MTV, Nickelodeon, Discovery, National Geographic Channel, Channel [V] and Lifestyle You.

Four additional packages are available:
- Sport ($10.00); four channels including FOX Sports Play, ESPN and Fuel TV.
-Entertainment ($15.00); eleven streaming channels including The Comedy Channel, Disney, SCI FI and UKTV.
- Movie Network ($15.00); two streaming channels, Movie One and Movie Two, plus catch up movies from eight movie channels including, Starpics, FMC and Movie Greats.
- Showtime Movies ($15.00); two streaming channels, Showcase and Showtime Premiere, plus catch up movies from seven channels including Showtime Comedy, Showtime Action And Showtime Family.

Each of the streaming channels will have VoD content that is relevant to the main streamed content of the channel.

Telstra and Foxtel announced in February the signing of an agreement to enable Foxtel content to be offered by Telstra to T-Box customers, and the launch of Foxtel on T-Box comes just a year after Foxtel announced an agreement with Microsoft to deliver Foxtel content over the Internet to Australian Xbox users via Microsoft's Xbox live service. This service is sold by Foxtel, not Telstra but for Telstra broadband customers, Foxtel content to Xbox is quota free.

At the time the T-Box plans were announced, Foxtel CEO Kim Williams distinguished the two services by saying: "For those Australians who may not yet be ready to take the full Foxtel service - with its choice of over 200 channels, 20 HD channels and full digital recorder functionality - or those who may want to focus on a condensed service and internet delivery, then Foxtel on T-Box offers a superb alternative that will connect strongly with their wants and needs." There is also the matter of pricing: Foxtel's main offerings start at $44.95 per month for the basic channel package.

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