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Foxtel

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Foxtel
Company typePrivate
IndustryPay TV
Founded1995
HeadquartersAustralia Sydney, New South Wales
Key people
Kim Williams, CEO
Bruce Akhurst, Chairman
ProductsFoxtel Digital
Foxtel iQ
AUD$4M
Number of employees
3,300+
Websitewww.foxtel.com

Foxtel is a cable television and satellite television company in Australia, formed through a joint venture between Telstra and News Corporation. It commenced supplying cable TV services to customers in 1995.

In order to drive subscription take-up at Foxtel, News Corp unsuccessfully attempted to purchase the rights to televise Australian Rugby League (ARL), rights that were then held by businessman Kerry Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL). News Corp subsequently established a rival rugby league franchise in Australia named Superleague. One season of Superleague was played during the 1997 Australian winter and televised by Foxtel. The business rivalry between Superleague and the ARL was intense and the backers of both franchises haemorrhaged money. Rational business practices eventually prevailed and as part of a commercial settlement half of News Corp.'s Foxtel stake was sold to PBL. The Superleague franchise was folded and PBL agreed to share its ARL rights with Foxtel.

In May 1998 Australis Media, the owner of a satellite TV service known as Galaxy TV, 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 TV's subscribers from the Australis Media liquidator and commenced offering its services on a satellite television platform.

Foxtel's shareholders currently comprise Telstra (50%) and a joint venture company that is owned by News Corp (50%) and PBL (50%).

Advertisements are shown on all channels, none of which are free-to-air.

Service Availability

File:Foxtel magazine.PNG
A typical subscriber guide

Foxtel transmits its cable service via Telstra HFC 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 Western Australia and the cities of Newcastle and Canberra. However, satellite service is not available at user sites where Telstra cable is available.

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. 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 TV 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 TV operator. Its programming is currently delivered to about 1.2 million Australian homes either directly or by Foxtel's wholesale customers. Foxtel is available to over 70% of Australian homes. However, pay TV penetration into Australian homes is only about 25%, very low compared with market penetration rates in the USA (over 90%) and in European countries.

With its low, widely spread population, Australia remains a challenging Pay TV market and operators face high per-customer distribution costs. However, competition in the Australian pay TV industry is limited and companies such as Foxtel can therefore extract relatively high subscription fees from their customers. This helps to ameliorate the high distribution costs.

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.

Foxtel Digital

File:Foxtel.svg

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:

Like many other NewsCorp owned digital platforms Foxtel uses NDS the OpenTV interactive platform and runs on primarily Pace 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 HFC cable carries Foxtel at frequencies of approximately 560MHz (downstream) and 2.4MHz (upstream).

Foxtel iQ

File:Foxtel iQ.JPG
The satellite Foxtel iQ digital set top box.
File:Foxtel iQ.svg

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.

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 personal digital recorder.

Encryption

Like BSkyB, Foxtel Digital utilises NDS 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.

TVN Explanation

Although TVN Racing is available to Foxtel subscribers it is not a Foxtel channel, due to Foxtel's exclusivity agreement with Sky Racing. To subscribe you need to contact TVN directly, and not Foxtel. TVN has reached an agreement with Telstra to carry the channel available on their cable, and unless you subscribe to the channel it is not visible. This is due to the fact that it's not registered with Foxtel in any way.

Channels on the Foxtel Digital Service

General

Movies

Sports

Interactive Gaming

News, Weather, Documentaries and Infotainment

Kids

Music

Foxtel air Digital Audio

  • Channel 830 - Air active - Hits, Radio 2, Pop, Groove, Rock, Jukebox, New Wave, Home Grown, Urban, Dance, Anthem, Soul, Easy, Lounge, Café, Spa, Blues, Light Classical, Soundtracks, Crooners, Today’s Country, Classic Country, BBC World Service, Special Events, Edge, '70s, '80s, Alt-rock, Classic R&B, News and More
  • Channel 867 - SBS AM
  • Channel 868 - SBS FM
  • Channel 875 - ABC NewsRadio (Satellite Only)
  • Channel 876 - ABC Parliamentary News Network (Satellite Only)
  • Channel 877 - ABC Radio National (Satellite Only)
  • Channel 878 - ABC Local Radio (Satellite Only)
  • Channel 882 - ABC Classic FM (Satellite Only)
  • Channel 883 - ABC Triple J (Satellite Only)
  • Channel 884 - ABC DiG Radio
  • Channel 885 - ABC DiG Jazz

Foxtel Box Office - PPV Movies

  • Channels 901-926 - FOXTEL BOX OFFICE Channels

Other

  • Channel 928 - Main Event
  • Channel 928 - FOXTEL BOX OFFICE Preview Channel
  • Channel 941 - Antenna (Greek) (formerly known as Antenna Pacific)
  • Channel 942 - RAI International (Radiotelevisione Italiana) (Italian)
  • Channel 955 - Adults Only (Late Night to early morning only), Main Event (Special Occasions Only) and when neither are running, there is a second broadcast of Fashion TV
  • Channel 960 - Adults Only Select 1
  • Channel 961 - Adults Only Select 2
  • Channel 998 - Test Channel
  • Channel 999 - FOXTEL Digital and Foxtel IQ Help Channel
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