Foxtel

I blame Channel Seven - if there weren’t so many unwanted dots adopted all those years ago, there’d be a huge supply in storage somewhere in the TV archives.

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Social media profiles also.

Social media profiles are dropping the dots as well now.

Yeah I can see their Facebook page was just updated, Instagram and Twitter still retain the dotted versions currently.

With all this talk about 4k/dvbt-2 broadcast testing lately, what are the chances that foxtel may do some of its own testing?

They’re barely doing HD; can’t see them even thinking about 4K.

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I think FOXTEL are going along OK with their HD, but finding bandwidth will probably be an issue, given that it will probably require the equivalent of 5 HD channels to fit it in.

What episode of Arrested Development is Foxtel up to? as Netflix has “more episodes coming soon” under the title now . Although checking now and it no longer says that.

Episode 5 this week.

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What packages do the Sky News channels fit in these days?

entertainment (ie the basic pack)

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Foxtel TV advertising without the dots

this is better, I like the red to but their old logo before the dots one was still a lot better

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Foxtel launches brand new drama content every week

Foxtel today announced a bold new programming strategy, which will see a new or returning drama series launch every single week. The move highlights the incredible line-up of television drama available to Foxtel customers, both on demand and across its suite of linear channels.

Featuring an unprecedented collection of brand new scripted drama series from Australia and around the world, the announcement cements Foxtel as Australia’s home of drama.

Kicking off this exciting new strategy is the much-anticipated HBO series Sharp Objects, starring multi-Oscar nominee Amy Adams, and from the director of the Emmy Award-winning series Big Little Lies.

Foxtel’s Director of Channels, Stephen Baldwin said: “Foxtel is the home of must-watch drama series and we are committed to bringing our customers a diverse range of content, both locally and from around the world.

“Our partnerships with HBO, FX, BBC and many other renowned distributors enable us to provide our customers with an exciting new drama series every week of the year, via our streaming service and linear channels.”

July 9:
HBO’s highly-anticipated thriller series Sharp Objects premieres today, July 9, streaming on demand and screening on showcase on Mondays at 11.00am, with a primetime encore at 8.30pm. Starring Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson and Australia’s own Eliza Scanlen in her breakout role as Adams’ half-sister, the eight-part series, based on the book by Gillian Flynn (bestselling author of Gone Girl) tells the story of reporter Camille Preaker (Adams) who returns to her small hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri to cover the murders of two young girls. Trying to put together a psychological puzzle from her past, she finds herself identifying with the young victims a bit too closely.

July 19:
The eighth season of hit legal drama series Suits launches on July 19, screening on Universal TV on Thursdays at 8.30pm. Joining the series this season is Katherine Heigl, who stars as powerhouse attorney Samantha Wheeler. Suits centres on a Manhattan corporate law firm led by legendary lawyer Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), his intelligent but delicate partner, Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman) and secretary-turned-COO Donna Paulsen (Sarah Rafferty). After surviving leadership turmoil and the loss of key partners, the trio continue to tackle top corporate cases with the support of formidable Alex Williams (Dule Hill) and the talented Katrina Bennett (Amanda Schull). After muscling her way in to the firm, Samantha Wheeler (Heigl) joins the ranks and challenges the status quo.

July 23:
Brand new drama series Patrick Melrose starring Oscar-nominee Benedict Cumberbatch premieres on July 23, screening on BBC First on Mondays at 9.30pm. This five-part series is based on the acclaimed novels by Edward St. Aubyn and tracks Patrick Melrose (Cumberbatch) from a privileged but deeply traumatic childhood in the South of France, through severe substance abuse in his twenties in New York and ultimately, towards recovery back home in Britain. At once harrowing and hilarious, Cumberbatch stars as the troubled, titular character.

July 26:
The latest installment in Ryan Murphy’s hit series, American Horror Story: Cult launches on July 26. Screening on showcase on Thursdays at 8.30pm, the whole season can also be watched in its entirety on demand from July 26. The 11-part horror drama stars Sarah Paulson, Billie Lourde, Evan Peters and guest stars include Lena Dunham. The series is set in the fictional city of Brookfield Heights – a city that is left divided by the 2016 presidential election. Local resident Ally (Sarah Paulson) is distraught by Trump’s victory, while fellow resident Kai (Even Peters) rejoices at the results. In the months following, Kai begins running for city government, while Ally is terrorized by masked clowns. Those close to her struggle to decide whether the attacks she alleges are real or merely anxiety-fuelled hallucinations.

July 27:
The sixth season of the hit series Orange is the New Black starts on July 27, streaming on demand and screening on showcase on Fridays at 5.00pm. The series follows engaged Brooklynite Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), whose decade-old relationship with a drug runner, Alex (Laura Prepon), results in her arrest and a 15 month long detention in a federal penitentiary. To pay her debt to society, Piper must trade her comfortable New York life for an orange prison jumpsuit and a baffling prison culture where she is forced to question everything she believes about herself and the world at large.

July 30:
Brand new ten-part fantasy series Siren premieres on July 30, streaming on demand and screening on Fox8 on Mondays at 8.30pm. Legend has it that Bristol Cove was once home to mermaids. Now, this coastal town has a mysterious new visitor named Ryn (Eline Powell), who may prove the stories to be true. Ryn catches the eye of local marine biologist Ben (Alex Roe), while other townfolk become suspicious of the new resident. The battle between man and sea then takes a dangerous route, as these predators seek to claim their birthright.

August 7:
The third season of animated HBO series Animals premieres on August 7, streaming on demand and screening on The Comedy Channel on Tuesdays at 9.00pm. The brand new installment in the edgy half-hour series focuses on the downtrodden creatures native to Earth’s least habitable environment: New York City. Whether its lovelorn rats, gender-questioning pigeons or ageing bedbugs in the midst of a midlife crisis, the awkward small talk, moral ambiguity and existential woes of non-human urbanites prove startlingly similar to our own.

August 13:
Fear the Walking Dead 4B, the second half of the series’ fourth season, launches on August 13, streaming on demand and screening on showcase on Mondays at 1.30pm with a primetime encore at 7.30pm. In the back half of the season, the characters will explore who they are now – as individuals and as part of the greater group – and how they will forge ahead. They will find themselves pitted against new adversaries – human, walker, and even nature itself. Theirs will be a journey wrought with danger, love, heartbreak, loss, and ultimately, hope. The series stars Lennie James, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Colman Domingo, Maggie Grace and Jenna Elfman.

August 19:
The sixth and final season of Foxtel’s hugely popular drama series A Place to Call Home premieres on August 19, streaming on demand and screening on showcase on Sundays at 8.30pm. The 10-episode season will take the much-loved characters in to 1960 - and will be brought to life by award-winning actresses Marta Dusseldorp and Noni Hazlehurst, along with Brett Climo, Abby Earl, Craig Hall, Sara Wiseman, Tim Draxl, Frankie J Holden, Deborah Kennedy, Arianwen Parkes-Lockwood and David Berry.

Zero chance via terrestrial broadcast (unless WIN TV^ provides them with capacity, good luck with that, I doubt Seven, Nine, Ten (lol) and the other terrestrial broadcasters will provide access). Foxtel are vacating HFC (lots of reasons why, but I believe the main one is paying rent to the new owner NBN Co is the one reason that is never talked about which ironically starts 2020 which is the same time that Telstra has to fully hand over to NBN Co as do Optus for their HFC) that leaves satellite which is an issue they would have to sort out with Optus (good luck with that), that leaves broadband streaming as the only distribution method to test 4K (either in UHD or DCI resolution), the issue with that is the majority of HTML5 browsers don’t do H.265 HEVC decoding (and won’t for a whole as the royalty costs to MPEG are enormous) , and mobile apps are a waste of time.

^For reference Sky News on WIN will be MPEG4 AVC/(audio is MPEG1 Layer 2) 720x576i with a variable bit rate of 1.8Mbits to 2.3Mbits total (including 48kHz 192kbits audio), atm the static title card has a bit rate of 1.2Mbits.

There is another option in terms of HTML5 4K video (again either UHD or DCI standard), WebM (video) codec (VP9 and future VP10) + opus (audio) is being developed by Youtube (and Netflix) for 2160p but in order for Foxtel to go down that road they would have to make a deal with Google or use the freeware versions (which they can’t as they are professional) , it’s all rather technical but for the moment MPEG4 H.264 AVC / AAC is all they can do which is what Optus is doing with Optus Sport for web/mobile app, that said Fetch mini/mighty set top units do have HEVC H.265 decoders but Fetch don’t have any linear 4K streaming channels.

I’m not sure if iQ3 has HEVC decoding ability as I’m not a subscriber of that service.

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Why would they bother testing on Terrestrial?

I only mentioned it as the reply I made had a reference to DVB-T2, so unless WIN want to give access to Foxtel (and they are in a commercial sense for Sky News on WIN) there is zero chance of Foxtel ever doing anything directly on terrestrial transmission^, and yes that includes the coming soon to Nine Network (on NECO O&O stations) JV channel (which is rumored to be a combination of Nine News/Sky News & aPac) which is replacing Sky Business on Foxtel platform and replacing I believe exTra on the Nine DVB-T MUX, I do not know if regional providers that have affiliation with Nine are also providing it.

^ Rumor that News Corp are interested in buying / becoming closer partners in Seven West Media since they missed out on Ten Network Holdings.

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if it contains content that will count towards an ACMA quota, then they will

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Nine also has a commercial arrangement with Foxtel, so why is WIN the only option? Not that terrestrial trials for Foxtel 4K are even a thing worth discussing.

Surely at some point Foxtel need to just transition everyone to at least MPEG-4 capable boxes and switch off all the MPEG-2 channels - at least over satellite - they could leave people on cable on the old boxes while they slowly switch them all over to satellite.

That would gain them back a huge chunk of satellite space - enough for any 4K testing.

Ideally they’d also just make HD the base level - but even if they had to provide a MPEG-4 SD simulcast of all the HD channels - they’d still be on top overall, due to both the increased efficiency of MPEG-4, and in the cases of all the channels that are SD only that wouldn’t need to be duplicated.

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