Foxtel Alternatives

Riczter on 18/01/2013 - 00:07

We've got foxtel and it costs a fortune. Half of us in the household want to get rid of it, the other half are saying "over my dead body". Are there any alternatives???

The main problem is sport. Father likes his movies, but more importantly wants his AFL and Boxing matches… and as far as I know you can't download AFL matches??

The other issue is the little brother who likes all his cartoon network and nikelodeon stuff. But all these kid shows can be downloaded and run through something like WD TV Live Streaming so that's no problem.

And the big sister likes all the MTV Garbage and jersey shore crap. Quite frankly she can "go kill yourself.jpg"

I got the N40L server so I'm going to set that up in the loungroom as a HTPC/NAS for dad and sister (and to serve the WDTV) so they have access to movies and TV shows, but I'm still stuck on sport for dad.

Are there any ways to download or stream from the internet sport matches like AFL without foxtel??

Are there any other alternatives I'm not seeing??

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Comments

  • _Bruce_ on 18/01/2013 - 07:34

    There is this but you have to be not from Australia, not sure how/how well that is enforced:
    http://www.afl.livesport.tv/about

    • [Deactivated] on 18/01/2013 - 13:42

      You need a VPN connection to a valid country on their list to purchase & stream it (due to rights with other pay TV holders, it will depend on what matches will be available). I know some people use use it for the NRL service. I seem to remember Telstra are the owners/part owners of this.

  • Agarwal on 18/01/2013 - 08:11

    You could maybe look at Foxtel on XBOX or something like that if you have a decent internet connection with a large download limit (or you're with telstra). It doesn't have a all the channels but I think it works out to about $40 per month for the basic package and the AFL channel. Or he could watch AFL on his phone or ipad.

  • Ramrunner on 18/01/2013 - 09:09
    +3

    Agree with Joelab. Foxtel over IP (IF your connection is decent) is the only cheaper alternative for the AFL.

    Mind you, my personal view is that Foxtel is THE biggest rip off in the media broadcasting sector IN THE WORLD having lived in multiple countries the prices charged in Australia for Pay TV are absolutely STAGGERING and I'm surprised all these people put up with it instead of voting with their dollars, and disconnecting Foxtel. Guess like alcohol and cigarettes, sport can be a drug for some? Watch how fast Foxtel would come to reasonable pricing if they had no subscribers.

    Sorry about the rant. Just used to getting pay TV for about 9 Euro a month for 200 channels (including a broadband internet feed).

    • _Bruce_ on 18/01/2013 - 09:16

      I don't think Foxtel are raking in cash, there is a market size issue. If they had to drop pricing much I expect they will have to just give up, and then more of their exclusive content will move to free to air.

      Australia is a sport crazy country though, so their current model seems viable.

      All of this is short term though, particularly once the NBN is in I see traditional TV services declining rapidly.

      • Ramrunner on 18/01/2013 - 11:22
        +10

        Bruce, sorry I should be more clear.

        Firstly - $598 Million in earnings I kind of DO consider "raking it in" - that's nothing to piss at.

        http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/foxtel-earnings-grow-8…

        But that's not what I really meant. I meant (Like you're mentioning now when you mention NBN), the way their pricing model is, they are ripping off to some extent.

        For example, the MINIMUM package is $45 p/m then you add to it, 39 channels in the base. I couldn't give a toss about 36 of them. I'd maybe watch an occasional 3 of the remaining. 33 wasted channels that I'm paying for, but don't really want. This is an argument that I have with every Foxtel subscriber, but seems to be just accepted. I don't get it. If I want to subscribe to let's say a Playboy magazine at let's say $10 per month, why should I pay $50 for 30 other magazines I do not want and will not get the chance to read in a month?

        People say - "That's not a real comparison" and no, I'm aware Foxtel has some infrastructure that needs to go on the roof, but I'd happily pay a reasonable price for once-off installation if that meant I could buy say 3 channels at about $10 per month. I do not believe in this bundling in a 2 year contract (or 1 or whatever - don't care) just to get the equipment for free, and this "our way or the highway" attitude.

        They are finally making inroads by pushing Foxtel on to mobile devices, Smart TVs and XBox for example, but again, about $20 per month, pushing 16 channels at me, of which I'd watch 5. They are starting to "get it" though, just need to fine tune what people want.

        If I were running Foxtel, I'd rather make $5 per month off 20 million people than try to make $50 off 2 million. Especially with on-demand in every house. If 20 million people have Foxtel, the chances of any people buying the boxing match or on-demand movies increases dramatically, making Foxtel more profitable in the long run.

        If they don't get the formula right soon, I see things like FetchTV at $10 a month kicking Foxtel's butt.

        Especially as, like you say the NBN comes through and everybody gets access to IP TV.

        • m0nkeycheese on 18/01/2013 - 19:37

          Well said

        • gornfishin on 19/01/2013 - 06:14

          this comment needs to be sent to foxtel!

        • [Deactivated] on 19/01/2013 - 11:25
          +3

          FetchTV isn't going to kick any things butt. It's basically a collection of channels that Foxtel doesn't want.

        • Ramrunner on 19/01/2013 - 14:34

          I did say "things like". It was just an example. I think there will be more IPTV providers as bandwidth increases over the next decade, and I believe the model for delivery will be over IP as opposed to satellite dishes. The company that gets the mix right first will do Foxtel serious damage, UNLESS Foxtel themselves get it right.

          Sorry for being too specific.

        • [Deactivated] on 19/01/2013 - 15:22

          I agree with your post, except FetchTV example.

          Foxtel own exclusive rights to every thing. It's a monopoly. It'd be up to content providers to give other companies a fair go etc, or Government intervention to end the monopoly.

          Until we get online services on par with those like Hulu and Netflix in the USA, I don't see FetchTV or Quickflix even showing on Foxtels radar.

          That being said I found Hulu ads too intrusive, and Netflix was too out of date for my liking any way.

  • ESEMCE on 18/01/2013 - 11:37

    Don't Telstra offer Foxtel (and AFL) through their mobile service?
    Get your dad a HDMI out Android device and buy a Mobile Foxtel and AFL pack to go with it maybe? No idea what the costs or quality are like.

    Couldn't agree more about the price of Foxtel, especially the bundling requirement.

    There's also AFL on FTA (although if you're not in the southern states, I'm guessing it's low priority and possibly delayed)
    The other option is for him to go to the pub.. Probably drink himself stupid for the same price as Foxtel!

    • [Deactivated] on 18/01/2013 - 13:46

      the quality is appalling (it's meant for a mobile/iphone device) basically Ch7 & Foxtel own SD & HD vision.

      They never used to support Android devices, maybe they do now.

  • Riczter on 18/01/2013 - 11:58

    Haha thanks, yeah there's some good ideas there, particularly if foxtel is available to mobile customers.. dunno how good it would be via HDMI to the big screen. I imagine high def streaming for three hours would tax the internet usage… But yeah we need to come up with something. Foxtels become a bit of a joke. Paying for 100 channels and using 3..

    • ESEMCE on 18/01/2013 - 12:11

      Pretty sure its Free-zone content.
      Here's the page.
      http://www.telstra.com.au/tv/mobile-foxtel/?red=/foxtel/mobi…

      Note:

      Content and session times may vary from TV. Usage limits of 15 mins per session and 200 mins per month may apply.

      • _Bruce_ on 18/01/2013 - 13:00

        I expect you will want to be streaming it off you home internet connection anyway, not 3G/4G.

      • Riczter on 18/01/2013 - 13:05
        +1

        limited to 15 mins per session. That kinda kills it.

    • _Bruce_ on 18/01/2013 - 13:00

      The only quality limitations will be the internet connection and the source material (which may suck).

      • [Deactivated] on 18/01/2013 - 13:46

        Nope, it's crap quality meant for small mobile device screen.

  • [Deactivated] on 18/01/2013 - 13:49

    Op, the other option is a tbox (if you're with Telstra ADSL/Cable) you don't get live matches, but you do get full matches 24hr after broadcast. tehre's also a AFL channel which has has match replies & some other panel/discussion shows.

    Or if you have a Tesltra ADSL/Cable connection there is a way to stream the tbox stuff to your PC/laptop, but it's a bit of a p.i.t.a.

    The other option is justin.tv where people stream their foxtel channels.
    But it's dodgey & not quite legal.

  • Riczter on 18/01/2013 - 17:02

    Ahhh the T-Box. I havent heard anything about that for ages. Can anyone comment on the T-Box, how good it is, etc. Is it kept updated?

    24 hour delayed broadcast would be fine.. He usually records it to watch later anyway. With the T-Box can you record? Is it like an uninterrupted broadcast or do you stream it on demand? Do you need an external device like a PVR to record or is it like a foxtel box where you can pause and rewind?

    Also cheers for the link to Justin TV. I've never heard of that. Looks like an intriguing, if not fully legal, idea ;)

    Edit - just watching the t-box video. Has inbuilt PVR.

    • [Deactivated] on 20/01/2013 - 19:23

      yeah I got one from ebay (new) for $130.
      You can't record tbox/telstra channels (AFL, NRL, V8s, Music) using the PVR. But you can stream the games on demand. (it's a little cumbersome finding the matches at first). The match highlights are available straight away after the match.

      But the PVR works for free to air TV (record only 1 channel, but you can watch a second).

      I haven't used a PC to record BigPond TV, but pop over to Whirlpool & ask, that's where I found out about being able to watch the channels on your PC (so long as you have Telstra ADSL/Cable). But the tbox being so cheap, I decided to get that as a PVR too.

  • Riczter on 18/01/2013 - 17:18

    T-Box looks pretty good.

    Im guessing its kind of just a glorified WDTV Live?? In the sense that instead of using my HP Microserver as a HTPC, i could instead leave it in the cupboard as a headless server, and the T-Box would stream content from the server to the tv?

    Does that sound right?

  • ethereal88 on 19/01/2013 - 07:29

    Torrents, private trackers and a seedbox. Literally everything at your fingertips, months before it arrives in this overpriced dump. E.G. virtually every single film for this and the next two months has been leaked as a SCR from Life of Pi to Django Unchained.

    • Riczter on 19/01/2013 - 12:15

      Yeah I'm well up to date on all that. My concern is AFL matches.. I've only seen one on a torrent site, and it was very poorly received.

      • epicaricacy on 19/01/2013 - 21:04

        pm…

        • epicaricacy on 19/01/2013 - 21:08

          nope - can't pm you… you have that feature off..

        • Riczter on 19/01/2013 - 22:08

          I just learned there was a pm feature. Its on now. Please pm me if u got any info on the above :)

    • Jayphen on 20/01/2013 - 11:41

      Alas live sport usually isn't up for 12-24 hours, and it's just not the same if you don't watch live.

      • [Deactivated] on 20/01/2013 - 12:30

        Especially with Dreamteam and Supercoach!

    • Riczter on 20/01/2013 - 16:05

      Hey I just realised why there's stuff all AFL torrents around at the moment. Its the off-season duh!.
      Does anyone know how widely the AFL matches are torrented during the on-season? If there's only like 2 or 3 seeders for a 3 hour torrent its not gonna be worth it, but if plenty of people get on board then maybe that is a viable option. Not that I condone illegal torrenting… cough. I've never searched for it before so anyone with experience can tell me how quickly they are released and how popular they get in terms of seeders and leachers? or pm me.

  • acoma on 20/01/2013 - 16:13

    wiziwig.eu

    • Riczter on 20/01/2013 - 16:55

      wow that looks promising. cool. and it has boxing too. is it any good? spose it needs a good internet connection. I get around 1.8mBps download but only 100kBps upload. It's P2P so will my slow upload speed be a problem?

      • Mitchh on 20/01/2013 - 18:40

        I've used the above site for getting Ice hockey streams at some point (and then i used another live streaming service). The quality is poor, but then again it works pretty well for slower internet, eg. your 1.8 megabits per second will do the streams fine.

        The streaming links you get from there are not P2P, I don't know if there is there is some software on there that you could use P2P for, if so, the slow upload shouldn't impact on you, only others. I haven't heard of the p2p on there though

  • Bluejay on 21/01/2013 - 14:52

    ring up foxtel and say its too expensive, you can't afford it, etc. use that as leverage to get a better price. My experience is that they will give discounts more often than not

    • billy_bob on 22/01/2013 - 09:53

      Yes, this works sometimes. My dad called up threatening to cancel and they reduced his Basic + Sports package to $35, but only for 6 months. Not sure what he will do after that…maybe threaten to cancel again! I think $35 is about the right price and should be their regular price for the service.

  • ryanlundie on 21/01/2013 - 16:20
    +1

    unotelly+netflix = awesomeness

    • Riczter on 21/01/2013 - 16:33

      Cool, I'm finding out all these sites that I never knew existed. This is great. Thx!

  • SetsunaFSeiei on 21/01/2013 - 17:49
    +2

    For all live sports I use http://www.wiziwig.tv/ Its practically the best for online sports streams and they have every sport and multiple quality streams. Be it pay per view boxing, MotoGP which I love or AFL/rugby league every game or race is on. Most sites you get redirected to have adds which are sometime pesky to remove from over the top of the video and some need you to download extra software for free such as the popular sopcast to watch the video from within that. But now that the site has progressed over the years you can find streams that are HD quality most of the time, if your internet is fast enough. TV channels are also available on the internet as well. I have a Home Theatre PC setup under the TV and a mini wireless keyboard and mouse to use it with. I hate corporations trying to steal every red cent from us consumers so stick it to them.

  • macfanboy on 22/01/2013 - 15:36

    unblockus+netflix = $13 per month. Totally worth it.

  • sirs2k on 07/07/2013 - 19:17

    You can't also try stopstream.Tv has many different streams per event.
    I even use it to check what matches there's be soon.
    Have a look and you'll see what I mean

  • ellave on 09/07/2013 - 07:52
    +1

    Mediahint, its like Unblock us but free.

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