Free-to-air on Foxtel in Canberra?

Tooks said :

Eppo said :

Holden Caulfield said :

Also, if ainsliebraddon only knew the horror of being forced to subscribe to Foxtel so that one can get a decent AFL coverage in this town then they might not be so churlish, haha.

At least you get some coverage. A foxtel subscription is needed to view ANY rugby! (I’m talking proper rugby, none of this 5 tackles and kick rubbish)

As opposed to kick, kick, kick, scrum, kick, lineout, penalty goal, drop goal, kick.

And for any game the Wallabies are involved in, add: scrum collapse, rest, wait, grab a drink, call for the trainer, scrum reset, pause, hold, engage, scrum collapse – scrum penalty.

I’ve heard a few excuses for why its not broadcast in Canberra. The most valid one, may be bandwidth available on the satellite service. The other is advertising, which I suspect links to bandwidth. They would need to broadcast regionalised channels with advertising and that is the hard part.

I’ve heard many people complain about it. I initially just went and got a Beyonwiz DP-P2 as it will accept an analogue input ie. foxtel and record from it. So i could record foxtel without their iQ box. I have to admiot, I now have the iQ and HD channels, its the only stuff I watch now. Of course I pay more than I should for these IMO.

Who cares – “The revolution will not be televised.”

Treat it as a golden opportunity. I no longer kn.ow nor care what is on 7, 9 or 10

Tooks said :

As opposed to kick, kick, kick, scrum, kick, lineout, penalty goal, drop goal, kick.

Man, that was quite a game, wasn’t it? Good times.

First world problems indeed. Which I share, since I choose to live in the first world.

I’d been running under the assumption that Foxtel will pick up FTA once the analogue signal goes away … maybe not so simple here given the difference with the big cities. Meh. Very little on FTA worth watching, and most of that is on ABC/SBS. The commercial stations are *just*awful*. Cricket may be the only reason to go the set-top-box. And the one week a year Ch7 has the hayburners.

Eppo said :

Holden Caulfield said :

Also, if ainsliebraddon only knew the horror of being forced to subscribe to Foxtel so that one can get a decent AFL coverage in this town then they might not be so churlish, haha.

At least you get some coverage. A foxtel subscription is needed to view ANY rugby! (I’m talking proper rugby, none of this 5 tackles and kick rubbish)

As opposed to kick, kick, kick, scrum, kick, lineout, penalty goal, drop goal, kick.

Eppo said :

At least you get some coverage. A foxtel subscription is needed to view ANY rugby! (I’m talking proper rugby, none of this 5 tackles and kick rubbish)

Yes, but after the way Nine/WIN handled the RWC would you want FTA to have the rights anyway?

That Nicole Livingston ad about keeping sport on FTA drives me barmy. I certainly agree with the basic premise of keeping some sports/events on FTA, but when those protected channels choose not to exercise their precious rights and show stuff live, well, I wish Livingston was around to hear my rant. #firstworldproblems

I don’t actually have foxtel, so don’t really care, but I am curious – is foxtel only available in Canberra by satellite? If so, is the issue that FTA channels are not rebroadcast via satellite at all, anywhere?

Or is this a case where your “box” knows what state you are in, and only shows you the appropriate channels? Cause if it is a software thing….

When I complained to Foxtel about this I was told it was due to advertising. WIN, Prime and Southern Cross wouldn’t allow it because Foxtel viewers would be watching the Sydney FTAs and see the Sydney ads rather than the local ads. Apparently Austar in Queanbeyan relays the Sydney free-to-airs but Foxtel here does not.

I told Foxtel that the TVs at the Foxtel kiosk at Woden Plaza were showing the cricket with the Nine logo in the corner so why couldn’t I see that as well and I was blithely told that I could watch the cricket on WIN. She seemed oblivious to the fact that we had to pay extra for a satellite service with fewer channels, wheras in Sydney and elsewhere they had a cheaper cable service with more channels.

I cancelled my subscription shortly after.

ainsliebraddon said :

How simply awful for you to have that situation. It must be such a chore to have to press the TV/AV button to get free to air channels. #firstworldproblems

*rollseyes* I didn’t see a whole lot of hand wringing angst in the OP’s question, or threats to hit the streets over this vital matter…just someone asking a question, on a forum that – oh look, people use to ask questions. Do you think that they should really be putting their Foxtel subscription towards schools and hospitals too??

I find this a bit annoying too – mainly because I’d love to use the recording feature with the iQ box to schedule recording of free to air tv. It’s great being able to set up series links on ABC programs, I’d love to get that ability on the commercial channels without having to go and buy a separate PVR.

Holden Caulfield said :

Also, if ainsliebraddon only knew the horror of being forced to subscribe to Foxtel so that one can get a decent AFL coverage in this town then they might not be so churlish, haha.

At least you get some coverage. A foxtel subscription is needed to view ANY rugby! (I’m talking proper rugby, none of this 5 tackles and kick rubbish)

Eyeball In A Quart Jar Of Snot said :

Despite the common misconception, Canberra does not broadcast Channels 7, 9 and 10.

Instead, Canberra is subjected to regional broadcasters such as Prime, WIN, and Southern Cross Media.

This is my understanding too and I agree with chewy that it is a little annoying. On the plus side it does tend to shield you from the absolute s*** they serve up as programming these days.

Also, if ainsliebraddon only knew the horror of being forced to subscribe to Foxtel so that one can get a decent AFL coverage in this town then they might not be so churlish, haha.

(Before you get your panties in an even bigger bunch, I’m taking the piss.)

in canberra we have win network, prime and southern cross 10…and they hold the broadcasting licence outside the major capital cities. We dont count as a major capital city…

You don’t get them on satellite in Canberra.
Annoying – Yes.

How simply awful for you to have that situation. It must be such a chore to have to press the TV/AV button to get free to air channels. #firstworldproblems

Despite the common misconception, Canberra does not broadcast Channels 7, 9 and 10.

Instead, Canberra is subjected to regional broadcasters such as Prime, WIN, and Southern Cross Media.