Foxtel to launch movies by broadband

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 30 November 2006 00:09

Your IT - Home IT

Foxtel looks set to compete head on with its 50  percent shareholder Telstra with the launch of is own service delivering movies on demand over broadband.

US software company, Entriq, says it has been chosen to build and provide the backend support services for the initial trial phase of the new 'Foxtel By Broadband' service. Foxtel subscribers who are selected to participate in the trial will be able to watch Hollywood blockbuster movies, premium TV shows and other Foxtel content on-demand through www.foxtelbybroadband.com.au (At the time of writing the web site was not live) on their PC's or laptops. Entriq will host the online service, providing content management and distribution, security, commerce, and customer support.

Telstra launched the BigPond movies download service in February 20006  from http://downloads.bigpondmovies.com. It is now integrated with the movies my mail service - customers simply choose the delivery option. Downloadable movies can be viewed only on Windows XP PCs.

The information on the website is highly confusing. It claims to have "Over 18,000 titles to choose from" and "over 100 hours of entertainment titles ranging from new release movies to Hollywood classics" deliverable by mail and "300 hours of entertainment titles ranging from new release movies to Hollywood classics, TV dramas, comedies and documentaries," deliverable by download. However, at launch Telstra said there were 1000 titles available for download.

"Broadband delivery offers us a tremendous opportunity to continue to provide the leading entertainment experience to Australian households," said Patrick Delaney, Foxtel's executive director content development and delivery. "Entriq's service has allowed us to get in the market in record time and enables us to focus on delivering the best value service to the Australian public. The highly secure Entriq service will help us attract the world's leading content and permit us to remain nimble in this evolving digital market."

Entriq says its service is provided on a ASP (Application Service Provider) basis on-site at Foxtel. "The service is integrated into Foxtel's workflow. It encrypts the content and then allows Foxtel to assign business policies to the content linked to current subscriber entitlements. The Entriq service also restricts access to the content to Foxtel subscribers only and provides both email and chat support."