the encyclopedic entry of Foxtel

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History

In October 1995, Foxtel commenced a 20 channel service, delivered over the Telstra Hybrid Fibre Coaxial network.

In May 1998, Australis Media, the owner of a satellite television service known as Galaxy, was declared insolvent. Foxtel immediately commenced supplying programming to Galaxy's subscribers on an interim basis. In 1999 Foxtel was able to significantly boost its customer base by acquiring Galaxy subscribers from the liquidator of Australis Media and to commence offering its services on a satellite platform.

In 2002, a Content Sharing Agreement between Foxtel and Optus Television was approved by the ACCC

Foxtel's shareholders comprise Telstra (50%, through Telstra Media Pty Ltd) and joint venture company Sky Cable Pty Ltd that is owned by News Corporation (25%) and Consolidated Media Holdings (25%). It shares many features with the Sky Digital service in the United Kingdom, including iQ, the electronic program guide, a similar remote control, and Red Button Active.

Foxtel grew rapidly in 2007, with most of Foxtel's highest-ever rating events being broadcast that year, including the 2007 AFC Asian Cup quarter final between Australia and Japan, which drew an average of 419,000 viewers, an Australian pay television record.

Availability

Foxtel transmits its cable service via Telstra hybrid fibre-coaxial cable into the Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth metropolitan areas. Foxtel also transmits its satellite service into these cities as well as most regional areas of Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and the cities of Newcastle, Central Coast and Canberra. However, satellite service is not available at user sites where Telstra cable is available. Foxtel on Mobile, launched on Telstra's Next G Network in late 2006 and is now available within Telstra Next G (HSDPA/850MHz) coverage areas, which covers 98% of the population.

Telstra's network and Foxtel were created to combat the threat posed to Telstra's local call business by the combination of Optus Vision (now known as Optus TV) content bundling with Optus' local telephony services; Foxtel was the content arm of Telstra's defence strategy, while Telstra's multimedia broadband network was originally the sole delivery system.

In 2005, Foxtel and Optus Television agreed to a content-sharing arrangement. Programming competition between the two companies has now dissipated. Austar, a regional pay television operator, also carries most Foxtel programming. Austar sells satellite-delivered services to regional Australian markets that are not serviced by Foxtel.

Foxtel is Australia's largest pay television operator. Its programming is currently delivered to over 1.5 million Australian homes either directly or by Foxtel's wholesale customers. Foxtel is available to over 70% of Australian homes. In April 2008, Foxtel's penetration into Australian homes reached 30%. This penetration rate is low compared with market penetration rates in North America (over 90%) and in Eurozone countries. This is due to the fact that Australian pay-TV fees are more expensive than the US ones.

Foxtel announced its maiden annual profit in 2006, more than 10 years after it commenced services. The installation and maintenance of Foxtel services is Telstra's responsibility. In many markets Telstra has outsourced installation and maintenance to large communications contractors, including ABB Communications and Siemens-Thiess Communications Joint Venture.

In 2007, Network Ten formed an agreement with Foxtel to allow them to carry a digital version of Ten's programming. Included in the deal is electronic program guide data, which allows Foxtel iQ users to schedule recordings on Ten. Before the agreement, Ten was carried in an analogue format on cable only.

In 2008, Seven Network finally entered an agreement to allow Foxtel to carry its SD signal on the soon to be launched Optus D3 satellite.

Channels on Foxtel

Services

Although originally launching in 1995 with just a cable service, Foxtel has branched out into many new services since its inception.

Foxtel Digital

Foxtel launched its digital service (Foxtel Digital) in March 2004. The service is loosely based on another of News Corporation's subscription providers, BSkyB. Features of the digital service include:

Channels with widescreen
Selected movies with Dolby AC3 5.1 channel surround sound
Pay-per-view and Near Video On Demand services
Interactive television services including multiple camera angle sports, news, games and others
An interactive television and AIR radio guide
"+2" timeshift channels of popular channels, showing programs two hours later than the original channel

Like many other News Corporation-owned digital platforms, Foxtel uses NDS Group encryption system, electronic program guide and digital video recorder services, the OpenTV interactive platform, and primarily runs on Pace Micro Technology set-top boxes.

Foxtel's satellite service transmits exclusively from the Optus C1 satellite on a frequency of 12.438GHz and adjacent frequencies. The Telstra hybrid fibre-coaxial cable carries Foxtel at frequencies of approximately 560MHz (downstream) and 2.4MHz (upstream).

As of April 2007, all Foxtel subscribers are using the digital set-up, making Foxtel Digital synonymous with the standard Foxtel service.

Foxtel HD+

Foxtel announced their High Definition service called Foxtel HD+ on January 30, 2008, and became officially available on May 19, 2008. The service offers five channels in High Definition, Fox Sports HD, ESPN HD, BBC HD, Discovery HD and National Geographic Channel HD, as well as Foxtel Box Office HD and a retransmission of the free-to-air networks high definition channels (ABC1, SBS, Seven, Nine and Ten) to cable customers (although satellite customers will have to wait until mid 2009 for the launch of the Optus D3 satellite before they can receive the retransmission of the HD free-to-air channels). Foxtel are to launch several more HD, and SD channels after the launch of the Optus D3 satellite.

Foxtel HD+ is broadcast in MPEG-4 and provides channels in both 720p and 1080i.

Foxtel On Demand

Foxtel On Demand is a service offered by Foxtel to iQ subscribers that allows people to watch selected shows and movies whenever they want. Foxtel On Demand was launched on 8 February 2007, with a variety of programmes and included the entire second season of Love My Way.

The service is available to all Foxtel iQ customers as part of the service, however the programming able to be played is typically restricted to the channels that the customer is subscribed to. For example, customers not subscribed to the movie channels are not be able to view the stored movies.

On January 30 it was announced that the upcoming HD+ service would feature High definition on demand movies from Foxtel box office which are available for 48 hours from the time of purchase. Currently box office only features standard definition movies screening every half hour which are available from the time of purchase until 6am. Like on the current Foxtel IQ On Demand, these movies will also be pre-downloaded to the hard drive, though the bigger hard drive in the IQ2 allows for a wider selection.

Operation

The On Demand service provides programs determined by Foxtel. The iQ box uses a separate partitioned section of the hard drive to download and store the programs and movies. In the On Demand menu, the user has the ability to preview the program before watching, a synopsis, rating, and the duration left before the program is removed from viewing. At present, Foxtel is providing new material every Thursday, and each program has a duration of seven or 14 days before being deleted.

Mobile Foxtel

Launched in late 2006 to coincide with Telstra's NextG 3G Mobile phone network, Mobile Foxtel (previously Foxtel By Mobile) offers 12 standard channels of programming for a small subscription fee, optimised for mobile devices. At present the channels available are: SKY NEWS Headlines, Sky News Business Channel, CNN, FoxSportsNews, FOX8, The Comedy Channel, MTV, E! Entertainment, Fashion TV, Discovery Mobile, Disney Channel, Union Extreme Sports, Cartoon Network, TV1, National Geographic and Eurosportnews.

With the exception of CNN, Fashion TV, Eurosportsnews and FoxSportsNews, which are direct simulcasts of the actual channel and Sky News channels which are taken from the Sky News Active service, all channels are pre-produced loops that do not directly correlate to the full scale satellite/cable channel. At present, a limit of 200 minutes per month, with 15 minutes per session, may apply to the service, although this has not been strictly enforced.

Foxtel magazine

Foxtel's magazine, simply titled Foxtel, is the television listing magazine for Foxtel subscribers. It offers daily listings for most of the 130 channels offered on the platform, and is the only medium that subscribers can find information and recommendations on programming for the entire month.

Foxtel's magazine is Australia's highest-circulating paid-for monthly magazine, reaching over 815,000 homes every month. It is published for Foxtel by ACP Magazines, and distributed to Foxtel subscribers (who choose to pay for this service) by the postal service.

Available Models

Foxtel iQ (current model)

Foxtel has also launched Foxtel iQ, a timeshifting personal digital recorder, in which subscribers are able to record programs onto a hard drive inside the set-top unit for later viewing. Foxtel iQ also allows viewers to use the rewind or pause features during television programs. Two new services, On Demand and Remote Record, launched in 2007. Remote Record was launched on 1 January 2007, and On Demand on 8 February 2007. This service is based on Sky+, which was launched on News Corporation's UK television platform Sky in 2001.

Pace Micro Technologies are the set top box provider for iQ, of which they claim that the cable version of iQ is the first DVB-based cable digital video recorder.

Foxtel iQ2 (High Definition)

Foxtel's second generation Foxtel iQ, Foxtel iQ2 launched alongside the Foxtel HD+ service in mid 2008. Equipped with a 320Gb Hard Drive, iQ2 is capable of recording 30 hours of HD and 90 hours of SD content and offers HDMI connectivity

The iQ2 is equipped with four tuners, allowing users to record two programs at once while watching a third live. The fourth tuner is reserved for on demand content.

Foxtel iQ1

Foxtel have been stating in their online blog that an minor upgraded version of the original iQ will be launched alongside the iQ2 to be called the iQ1, Foxtel's plan is to have all customers migrated to the iQ1 or iQ2 within the next few years.

Encryption

Like the UK's Sky, Foxtel Digital utilises NDS Group services, including their Videoguard encryption system (for both cable and satellite). This is a change from previously using Irdeto and more recently Irdeto 2 on their satellite service.

Criticism

Advertising

In the early days of Foxtel commercial advertising was at most, limited. At the time, Australian Government legislation prevented the company from broadcasting advertisements during programs. Since legislation lapsed, Foxtel have gradually increased advertising across its platform. Certain programming on select channels is still broadcast commercial-free (i.e. Showtime during movies and Fox Sports during selected games).

Subscription Costs

Foxtel is often criticised by many for its high subscription costs when compared to similar services elsewhere, such as the United Kingdom or the United States. Australia has a relatively low penetration of subscription television services compared to other countries, thanks in part to the Australian Government's Anti-Siphoning list, which precludes Foxtel from bidding for rights on certain programs.

Third Party Access

Foxtel prevents users from using their subscription card in a third-party decoder, and requires all users to watch the service on a supplied set-top box, included with the subscription. Many users regard this as a form of vendor lock-in.