BigPond launches mobile TV
Hold that Torrent! Telstra has just launched a new “mobile TV” service that lets Next G users download shows like Family Guy, Pimp My Ride, South Park and The Chaser’s War on Everything to their mobile. Can you believe it? Video. On your mobile. Full-length episodes cost $4.95 each and can be viewed for up to seven days, while short clips are 50c a pop and can be viewed for 24 hours.
So let’s get this straight. You could buy a DVD with four episodes of South Park from ezydvd for $12.95 – a box that you can keep forever and pass on to your grandchildren and grandchildren’s grandchildren, or you could download a single poxy episode of South Park onto your mobile, with resolution the size of a postage stamp, compression artifacts out the whazoo and can only be viewed for seven days for $4.95?
What’s Telstra smoking? Because I want some. Big names for BigPond’s mobile TV [SMH]
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Comments
telstra sucks
to cdog
it’s easy to say ‘telstra sucks’, the only question is why. being the biggest company and employer in the country they’re always going to be an easy target. when you think about the breadth of services they offer that allow all australian’s to communicate (including your current internet connectivty most likely) they’re not really doing that bad a job.
sure, when you try and call them it can be difficult – but do you have any suggestions other than abuse???
nah, telstra sucks, for good reason.
Bah, abusing them on the phone doesn’t work. I know, I work in a Telstra call centre. As soon as someone abuses me, I terminate the call. If someone’s polite I’ll go waaay out of my way to help them.
Dean if you work in a telstra call centre then you deserve the abuse,as for buying an episode for $5 for 7 days!!??i don’t know anybody who’s would be dumb enough to buy it.
†els†ra doesn’t suck (totally), just their overpriced services and their arrogance at “supporting their stockholders”. Bah. Cheaper prices would = more customers (their help-desk is not as bad as some) = more profit… is it that simple or am i missing something…
surfer79 – > offering a variety of services is not that hard. Look at IBM, they do an excellent job of this.
Me? Im with bigpond: at least until my contract runs out (groan).
To compare it to pricing in the US, you can buy a full-length episode of most of the latest TV shows through iTunes at 640 x 480 resolution for $1.99 (around $2.20AUD) and they don’t expire. Telstra seems to think that you’ll pay a premium for the convenience of on-the-fly downloads, but even if it’s your absolute most favourite show in the world, as if you’re going to want to watch it on a tiny little mobile phone screen. Maybe if it was part of an all-you-can-download service that you pay a monthly subscription fee for (and that’s only if you do a lot of commuting and don’t like reading, listening to music or staring at other people), but paying per episode – and $4.95 at that? Faggeddaboutit.
They are after impulse purchases. I’m bored. I’m on a train platform. I have to kill some time. That sort of thing.