When Foxtel launched its IPTV service on Xbox last year, they promised that they were looking at different ways to get their internet content out to a diverse range of customers. It looks like that plan has moved into phase two, with the Pay TV operator announcing they’ll be offering 30 channels of content through the Telstra T-Box from May this year.
While Foxtel haven’t confirmed exactly what channels are included, they have said the offering will include “30 of some of FOXTEL’s best channels – including FOX8, Discovery, FOX SPORTS PLAY, Movie One and Showtime Premiere”, which sounds very similar to the Foxtel on Xbox service lineup. They’ve also confirmed that there will be a wide range of catch-up TV and movie content.
One of the benefits of having the service available on T-Box is that it will be unmetered for Telstra BigPond customers.
But perhaps the most interesting part of the announcement was this little nugget towards the end:
Telstra BigPond will also become FOXTEL’s preferred internet service provider and extend unmetered FOXTEL via broadband content for BigPond ADSL and cable customers to other Telstra supported devices. More Telstra supported devices, including IPTV-enabled televisions, will be announced in the months ahead.
That sounds a lot like Foxtel will be coming to LG and Samsung IPTV TVs (and potentially others) in the coming months as well. Does that mean that 2011 could be the year IPTV actually manages to deliver on its promise? We hope so…
[Telstra]