Pay TV History

Another “lost” Australian pay TV show that hasn’t been repeated since its original airing was “Whatever Happened to That Guy?” which aired on thecomedychannel in 2009. It starred Peter Moon and was filmed in and around Melbourne and Footscray. Only 8 episodes aired. These episodes are on Youtube.

1 Like

No Optus Vision?

Whatever happened to the dude on the right? :thinking: :crazy_face:

1 Like

That reminds me of how my office was setup at my 1st job.

2 Likes

Found an early rare Foxtel promo from 1996 using Titanic footage.
Now up on my yt

3 Likes

12/01/2007: Showcase (now FOX SHOWCASE) was launched on Foxtel and Austar

3 Likes

One of the oldest channels on Foxtel still going in 2022

1 Like

To add to this, I seem to recall (a relo had Optus Vision) that the Sports Australia 2 popup channel was on 26 initially - then it was moved to 13 when Sports AFL died out (which is where it then sat under the C7 brand - I don’t think the C7 change quite happened at the same time).

2 Likes

You could even choose which camera you wanted to watch from and if you wanted to listen to live commentary on selected games.

1 Like

OPTUS VISION “HELP” guide. Circ. 1995 or 1996.

Videos shared from “OLD OPTUS VISION - MID 1990S PROMOS” YouTube page.

Brings back so many childhood memories as OPTUS VISION was my family’s first foray into PAY TV.

2 Likes

Video shared from “OLD OPTUS VISION - MID 1990S PROMOS” YouTube page.

Classic OPTUS VISION TV Guide from early January, 2000.
Nice to see what OPTUS VISION was showing at the start of the Millenium.

2 Likes

Featuring Martin Grelis who later went on to do the Easy Off Bam Ads in the Mid to Late 2000’s and recently appeared in an ad for Ladbrokes with Mark Wahlberg.

The production music used in the Opening Segment is Nothing to Lose by Richard Cottle

1 Like

If Optus vision was still going in early 2000 then when did it end?

2 Likes

The agreement for Optus to resell Foxtel channels was completed in early 2002 - which was set to start November, with the exception of the Fox Sports channels which needed to be on earlier after C7 closed down.*

The presser is still on the Optus web site: https://www.optus.com.au/about/media-centre/media-releases/2002/03/breakthrough-agreement-in-subscription-television

Note that by then I think they’d already started calling it “Optus TV” rather than Optus Vision. Although it didn’t die for a while in name, that was the point where they just became a glorified wholesaler of Foxtel.

* Hence the start of the period where they were generically branded “Sports One” and “Sports Two” on the underlying feed [and simply as “on One/Two” verbally in promos], with Fox and Optus adding their own branded bugs. Notable on the Fox side as well, as I think that was the first time the original channel was branded “Fox Sports One”, if only in the graphic bug, rather than just “Fox Sports”.

2 Likes

This is interesting this means that for a short while there would have been two pay-tv companies in Australia. I always thought that by the time Foxtel was starting in 98 Optus Vision no more.

1 Like

There were more.

Pay TV started in Australia on 26 January 1995 with Galaxy. That year, Optus Vision and Austar launched on 19 September followed by Foxtel on 22 October.

Galaxy closed on 28 May 1998 and Foxtel acquired its subscribers. Foxtel acquired Austar in 2012.

Optus TV stopped offering service to new subscribers in 2009.

5 Likes

And didn’t really promote (or maintain it) - as Optus’ interest in reselling wained, they started promoting it (as an option) less, didn’t support newer iQ hardware, and didn’t add some new content.

2 Likes

I’m not sure they were expanding too much even by 1998. The big blocking point even then was the desire to run the cable on telegraph poles, which a lot of local councils blocked. That forced any expansion to either be via satellite or underground - and that’s where Telstra’s part-ownership of Foxtel (and the ex-monopoly pits) likely proved to be crucial.

Of course, when Optus stopped expanding, Telstra stopped competing too, as was typical back then. :person_shrugging:

I guess in an alternative world, Optus could have leveraged their satellite services more rather than being a service contractor to Galaxy and Austar (and some of the predecessors that were merged into Austar that I can never remember).

At the same time (01-02-ish), their cable internet partnership with Excite@Home was on its last legs too (due to the US partner going bust), plus of course the loss of C7 due to Seven losing AFL rights - you may notice in that PR that that deal did not initially include Fox Footy Channel mk1, given it was Foxtel owned and not by Fox Sports.

So there was a lot going on in the Optus business at the time, so I’m not surprised that they re-focused on what they were good at at the time - the satellite service stuff - and let Foxtel and Austar have at it.

Bit of a melange of stuff there, apologies that it ended up a brain dump of sorts. :sweat_smile:

2 Likes

02/12/2000: musicMAX (now MTV Classic Australia) was launched

6 Likes

C7 promo for the XFL

2 Likes