lets see, I canceled Optus TV featuring Foxtel Digital oh around mid 2012 after having it installed as Optus Vision way back in November 1996, I have not once considered to have it reinstalled or an alternative like Fetch.
With there being so many FTA multi-channels which cover nearly everything that I would watch anyway + legit on-line streaming there is no need and even then I will find away to watch even if it mean using nefarious methods, example I like watching El Rey Network for Lucha Underground but trying to find legit way to watch it here is next to impossible as I dont have Apple iTunes (also I don’t think its available for Australian account holders) and Netflix is not up to date (they are still only at Season 2 whereas its up to Season 04 episode 06 as of this upcoming Thursday morning) and even then you need to use a VPN that by-passes geoblocking and I doubt any FTA or even Australian based pay TV will broadcast it due to some of the sensitive nature of the content re: inter-gender matches, that said it would fit 7mate perfectly lets say on a Tuesday night after 11pm.
Yes I love my NRL but don’t need Fox Sports, the Channel 09 games per week are enough for me + like watching NSWRL & for that matter Club Rugby on 7two when at home o Saturday afternoons, not being a fan of AFL but still watch where I can Swans or GWS games on 7mate so that is fine, Cricket? Meh although BBL is good during summer nights when you come back from the beach and want to chill, about the only sport I miss being on regular TV is Supercars, but screw Fox Sports and Supercars I watch it via BT Sports as I have access to that service & dedicated VPN IP link to the UK, watching Bathurst 1000 commercial free is awesome and in 720p ok its not 1080i broadcast but hey its commercial free so can’t complain, but does chew data but they recently changed to HEVC encoding so data consumption is 50% less then what it used to be and I attend the Bathurst 12hr in person, for everything else you can pretty much find it out there on the WWW and in HD too.
Fortunately I have decent broadband service via Optus HFC and more than enough data allowance (as I’m on grandfathered 500GB plan) so Online stream-cast TV (legit or even non-legit) is great when you combine it with FTA terrestrial.
The way I look at it the TV landscape is now as follows, again my view:
- Live sport & live news and maybe live reality TV if you get attached to the reality content on offer.
Everything else is now in the world of “On-Demand”
International channels, you can now download an app + the IPTV core (basically data links) and then use casting or mirror cast / air play to your TV and have anywhere up to (last time I checked, 2,000 channels), and the tech is getting better with each upgrade, I know that many people had trouble recently with Optus Sport but on my end it was flawless no issues (again remember I’m with Optus HFC for broadband internet) even when using Telstra LTE / 3G850 when out and about and watching to catch up on the mini matches no issues (not lucky just know how to make it work well for me) that is the present and future, cable linear TV channels excluding news & sport are done, dead, finished, its basically a waste of bandwidth with exception for those who rely on satellite , this is why Fox Sports for example needs to break away and be offered as standalone (won’t happen) as you can get content now served up to you on-demand with ease.
As for FTA, hmmm, live sport and news is the battle ground and sadly until they wake up and realise that then they are killing their own business model with all the simulcasting BS.
