Microsoft and Foxtel today announced an exclusive deal where come the end of this year in Australia most Xbox 360 Gold subscribers will be able to stream Foxtel directly through their Xbox 360 instead of having to purchase a Foxtel set top box.
The content and prices are yet to be announced but what is good is that if you are a current multiroom subscriber with a Xbox Live Gold subscription then the service will be free… and that just happens to be me so as soon as this service is launched in Q4 of 2010 I will be happy to review it.
The big question though is how much bandwidth this is going to steal as Australia still doesn’t offer any reasonably priced uncapped bandwidth options. Foxtel has implied 2 ISP’s are open to not measuring this bandwidth usage but they haven’t yet announced which ISP’s those are and what speeds will be required to stream this.
My personal view on all of this is that, much like the PS3’s streaming services, I find them a little wasteful. I have a paid TV subscription which comes with a PVR box. Why would I want to now shove it through my console of choice instead?
Especially then that console of choice is the ever so fragile Xbox 360.
Last Updated: May 20, 2010
Fox1
May 20, 2010 at 08:21
I think the IPTV idea is pure win. Watch what you want, when you want it
Adolph Current
May 20, 2010 at 09:58
I suppose living in a country where you are always worried about capping your internet before the 10th of every month (sigh!) has made me incapable of seeing the use of a streaming service on xbox live (or even PSN for that matter). If I want to watch satellite TV I already have a decoder. If I want to listen to commercial free tunes, I already have a spotify account and subscription on my PC. I just don’t see the need for browsing the internet on my TV, nor streaming (and inevitably buffering) movies when I can just pop in a DVD or head down to Mr Video. It’s all too gimmicky to be honest, much like 3D movie releases.
I know… I know… I’m not their target demographic and the desire is to make the box your entertainment centre of choice, but it still seems so incredibly inane and pointless.
doobiwan
May 20, 2010 at 13:19
Awesomeness, I can’t wait 🙂
My money’s on the ISPs being iinet and internode, they have existing Free XBL bandwidth agreements.
moner
May 28, 2010 at 14:24
as for me I prefer monitor bandwidth with ProteMac meter