Xbox or T-Box: cunning plans from a foxy IPTV provider

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 20 June 2011 12:18

Your IT - Entertainment

With Foxtel already Australia's premier pay TV service, available on its own iQ2 boxes and the Xbox 360, Foxtel's 50% owner is set to unveil Foxtel on its own T-Box from Sunday the 27th of June.

If you live in an area where Foxtel is available, but you don't have Optus or Telstra cable, and don't want a satellite dish, you used to be out of luck - until Foxtel decided to finally go IPTV.

This meant using set-top boxes other than Foxtel's own, with the Xbox 360 and Telstra's own T-Box turning out to be excellent candidates to deliver a Foxtel IPTV service.

Naturally, Foxtel's own iQ2 box offers the full range of Foxtel channels, along with the ability to pause, rewind, record and fast forward the live Foxtel channels, something the Xbox 360 and T-Box are unable to currently do.

However, both the Xbox 360 and T-Box plans for Foxtel offer cheaper pricing and no contracts, no need for pay TV cable and a smaller channel selection, although those who are watching 'catch up TV' or on-demand streaming movies will be able to rewind, pause and fast-forward as required.

Naturally, you will need a broadband connection, and while initial users will need BigPond Internet delivered over Pay TV cable to take advantage of Foxtel on T-Box, where the "full" Foxtel service could be accessed instead, Telstra will deliver Foxtel on T-Box over BigPond ADSL connections too, but only 'in the coming months'.

We did ask whether pausing, rewinding, fast forwarding or recording of Foxtel content would come to the T-Box, and were told that we'd have to wait for information from future Foxtel on T-Box or Xbox 360 roadmaps, and that this capability wasn't available at launch, and was only available on Foxtel's own boxes.

As you'd expect, BigPond subscribers will get the Foxtel streams in an unmetered fashion, something that isn't being extended to users of other ISPs, or at least, not yet.

While there are no contracts to worry about, letting users dip-in and out on a monthly basis, there are a range of plans to tempt T-Box users.

The 'basic starter service' comes with 11 channels and costs AUD $19.50 per month, with 'entertainment, sport and movie packages' form $10 to $15 per month available to add on top of the basic package.

Telstra's Executive Director of Media, J-B Rousselot said: 'Three out of four T-Box customers are families so we designed the new Foxtel service with value for money, quality home entertainment, and flexibility at the top of the list.

'The flexibility of no long term commitments with the Foxtel packages means our customers can have more control over their entertainment and the family budget.'

Foxtel's Executive Director of Product and Sales, Patrick Delany said: 'Making Foxtel's channels available to Telstra T-Box customers is another way for viewers to watch our premium programming without the need for a Foxtel set-top-box. It's simple to sign up online and start watching streaming TV. The Foxtel on T-Box TV packages are incredibly flexible and offer Catch Up TV so you can watch your favourite shows when it suits you.'

Continued on page two, please read on!