Foxtel

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Foxtel
Type	Joint venture between Telstra (50%) News Corporation (25%) PBL (25%)
Founded	1995
Headquarters	Sydney, New South Wales
Key people	Kim Williams, CEO Bruce Akhurst, Chairman
Industry	Pay TV
Products	Foxtel Digital Foxtel iQ
Net income	AUD$4M
Employees	3,300+
Website	www.foxtel.tv

Foxtel is a cable television and satellite television company in Australia, formed through a joint venture between Telstra and News Corporation. It began supplying cable TV services to customers in May, 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% through Telstra Media Pty Ltd) and a joint venture company (Sky Cable Pty Ltd) that is owned by News Corp (25%) and PBL (25%).

[edit] Service availability

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, Central Coast 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 alleviate 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.

[edit] 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 TV and AIR Radio guide.
• "+2" (timeshift) channels of popular channels, showing programs two hours later than the original channel.

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).

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

[edit] Foxtel iQ

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, exclusively available to Foxtel iQ subscribers will launch in 2007. Foxtel On Demand was launched on the 8th of February and Remote Record was launched on New Years Day, 2007.

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.

[edit] Foxtel On Demand

See Main Article: Foxtel On Demand

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

[edit] Encryption

The satellite Foxtel iQ digital set top box.

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.

[edit] Investments

• Adults Only (33.3%)
• Bio.
• The Comedy Channel
• Crime & Investigation
• FOX8
• Fox Classics
• The History Channel
• Main Event (33.3%)
• UK.TV (60%)
• W
• XYZnetworks (50%) - Joint Venture with Austar
  • Arena
  • The LifeStyle Channel
  • LifeStyle Food
  • MAX
  • Nickelodeon Australia (50%)
  • Nick Jr.(50%)
  • Channel V
  • Channel V2
  • The Weather Channel

[edit] Channels on the Foxtel Digital Service

[edit] Entertainment

• Channel 100 - Channel Nine (Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne in digital satellite and cable format. Adelaide and Perth in analogue cable format only.)
• Channel 101 - TV1
• Channel 102 - ABC TV
• Channel 103 - UKTV
• Channel 104 - SBS TV
• Channel 105 - Arena TV
• Channel 106 - The LifeStyle Channel
• Channel 107 - Channel Seven (Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth (cable only), in analogue format.)
• Channel 108 - FOX8
• Channel 110 - Channel Ten (Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth (cable only), in analogue format.)
• Channel 112 - FOX Classics
• Channel 113 - The Comedy Channel
• Channel 114 - W
• Channel 115 - Bio
• Channel 116 - Hallmark Channel
• Channel 117 - LifeStyle Food
• Channel 118 - How To Channel
• Channel 120 - Foxtel Box Office Movie Preview Channel
• Channel 121 - E!
• Channel 123 - Fashion TV
• Channel 125 - Ovation
• Channel 126 - ABC2
• Channel 132 - Sci Fi Channel
• Channel 150 - FOX8 +2
• Channel 151 - TV1 +2
• Channel 152 - FOX Classics +2
• Channel 153 - The Comedy Channel + 2
• Channel 154 - Arena TV + 2
• Channel 155 - W +2
• Channel 156 - UKTV +2
• Channel 157 - The LifeStyle Channel +2
• Channel 176 - TVSN
• Channel 177 - Expo Channel
• Channel 182 - Australian Christian Channel
• Channel 183 - Aurora Community Television

[edit] Interactive Applications

• Channel 222 - ASTRA (Voting application)

[edit] Movies

• Channel 401 - SHOWTIME
• Channel 402 - SHOWTIME 2
• Channel 404 - SHOWTIME GREATS (formerly ENCORE)
• Channel 411 - MOVIE ONE
• Channel 412 - MOVIE TWO
• Channel 413 - MOVIE EXTRA
• Channel 415 - MOVIE GREATS
• Channel 417 - Turner Classic Movies
• Channel 419 - World Movies

[edit] Sports

• Channel 500 - Interactive Sports Selector
• Channel 501 - FOX Sports 1
• Channel 502 - FOX Sports 2
• Channel 503 - FOX Sports 3
• Channel 508 - ESPN Australia
• Channel 513 - Fox Sports News
• Channel 514 - Eurosportnews
• Channel 516 - FUEL TV
• Channel 517 - Adventure One
• Channel 518 - Main Event
• Channel 519 - Sky Racing
• Channel 522 - TVN

[edit] Interactive Gaming

• Channel 555 - Gamesworld

[edit] News and Documentaries

• Channel 601 - Sky News Australia
• Channel 603 - The Weather Channel
• Channel 604 - FOX News
• Channel 605 - CNN International
• Channel 606 - BBC World
• Channel 608 - The History Channel
• Channel 610 - Discovery Channel
• Channel 612 - National Geographic Channel
• Channel 615 - Animal Planet
• Channel 617 - Crime and Investigation Network
• Channel 638 - Discovery Science Channel
• Channel 640 - Discovery Home and Health Channel (Formerly Discovery Health Channel)
• Channel 646 - Discovery Travel and Living Channel (Formerly Discovery Travel and Adventure Channel)
• Channel 648 - SBS World News Channel
• Channel 650 - Bloomberg Television
• Channel 652 - CNBC Australia

[edit] Kids and Family

• Channel 701 - Nickelodeon
• Channel 703 - Nick Jr.
• Channel 707 - Disney Channel
• Channel 709 - Playhouse Disney Channel
• Channel 713 - Cartoon Network
• Channel 715 - Boomerang

[edit] Music

• Channel 801 - Channel [V]
• Channel 803 - Channel [V]² (formerly Club [V])
• Channel 805 - MAX (formerly musicMAX)
• Channel 808 - MTV
• Channel 810 - VH1
• Channel 815 - Country Music Channel

[edit] 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

[edit] Foxtel Box Office (Pay Per View Movies)

• Channels 901-926 - FOXTEL BOX OFFICE channels

[edit] Special Interest

• Channel 941 - Antenna (Greek) (formerly known as Antenna Pacific)
• Channel 942 - RAI International (Radiotelevisione Italiana) (Italian)
• Channel 960 - Adults Only Select 1
• Channel 961 - Adults Only Select 2
• Channel 998 - Modem connection test channel
• Channel 999 - FOXTEL Digital and Foxtel IQ Help Channel

[edit] Up-Coming/Possible Channels

• Fox Business Channel[1]

[edit] External links

• Foxtel's Official Website
• Foxtel iQ Website