Foxtel leads Aussie IPTV

You can now get your broadcasts on demand via the internet courtesy of Foxtel.

The Australian based company, which is that country’s largest subscription television provider, is set to launch a trial of downloadable, on demand television services over the internet. The Foxtel-by-broadband trial is set to launch this month and will be offered to a limited number of staff and current subscribers (50 staff and only 150 subscribers).

The content downloads will be free of charge for existing Foxtel subscribers to the channel they are accessing, and the select range of movies and television programs will be determined by each individual channel.

The content downloads require a minimum broadband speed of 550Mbps. Foxtel has set up the trial to test the commercial probability of the broadband on demand service as well at the technical aspects.

Foxtel is set to release their new generation of broadband set top box, iQ box in February of 2007. The new box will be capable of storing up to 12 hours of programming. In the meantime, the Foxtel–by–broadband will be the bridge between the standard pay-television services and the new iQ box broadband service.

There are some problems that face subscribers to the Foxtel service. The Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection that has been chosen for their IPTV trial will only allow content to be viewed on the device that it was originally downloaded to – it can not be streamed to other areas in the house.