Foxtel’s new channels and features are on the air.
Today marks the arrival of a slew of new channels and features, including iSuggest with its snazzy poster grid and offering to record programmes with just one button. A prompt during advertisements will automatically set the show for recording on the iQ / iQ2.
Sky News Active has had a makeover while Sky News Local offers dedicated footage from 5 metro cities -but so far no introduction to stories it has lifted from others, including Channel Nine.
New channels are now on air and listed on the Foxtel EPG. Channel Seven has been added to satellite viewers in Melbourne and Brisbane (at long last).
As you become more familiar with the changes, TV Tonight is interested in hearing about the good, the bad and the ugly.
What are your thoughts on both content and functionality?
I agree with Russo when he says he thinks there needs to be a channel focused on younger adults showing all the wb shows like felicity, one tree hill, gilmore girls, 7th heaven, everwood, jack and bobby and other shows that fit that like the oc, veronica mars and party of five.
I also think Showtime Horror, Movies 24, MTV Hits and TMF also need to be added as Foxtel channels. Movies 24 will be Hallmark’s other sister channel which will be dedicated to made-for-TV movies, 24-7 and commercial free!!!
Nother really to get too excited from my point of view. Would rather they fix the irritants than keep adding. Specifically no FTA on satellite in Adelaide & Perth, blackout AFL games (same cities), non widescreen channels. Its actually getting harder to justify the expense when all they really add are gimmicks (iSelect i’m looking at you)
@Stayin with FTA says:
November 16, 2009 at 6:29 pm
‘Looks like Foxtel have done it again. Overcharged and under delivered. Par for the course. Not worth the money”
Please define where they have overcharged….I really would be interested to know where and your reasons as to why ???
(note: you had an option/choice to change things long before the live date)..
disappointed with showtimes offering. genres seemed like a good idea but checked out their webstie to see how the list of movies looked next month and it was all the same stuff again. I counted a few titles that played 17 times in the next month or so on the Action channel! WTF … its what I was worried about. They dont have enuf movies to feed the beast they created with action, comedy and drama
If I remember correctly back to the Galaxy days you could change the order of the channels. EG I would be able to move BBC News to channel 602 and everything just bumps along.
Maybe an idea for the next firmware update??
Looks like Foxtel have done it again. Overcharged and under delivered. Par for the course. Not worth the money.
Craig, they probably mean the master tapes.
Overall I’m pretty happy with the new channels. I had a nostalgic blast watching Dennis The Menace and Sonic on Kids Co. I like the French rugby on EuroSport, also had a bit of a laugh watching arm wrestling. ^_^
I like British human interest docos, so there’s programming on LifeStyle You which is up my alley. I have no interest in Style Network and Turbo Max. Da Vinci’s Inquest is the only show I like on 13th Street. I am very pleased with the additions of the 111 Hits and showcase timeshifts.
I find it totally unnecessary to have moved BBC World News so that History and Discovery etc. could move up two measly positions while BBC WN is all the way at the back. As a consequence I notice I’m watching little to no Sky, Fox, CNNI because I’m just going directly to 649, whereas I’d normally go to 606 and surf through the other news channels. It’s hardly the end of the world but it does make things noticeably less convenient. (I also preferred it when BBC Knowledge and CI were next to each other). I checked out Sky News Local and was surprised the picture was not full-screen. It’s great to finally have Seven on satellite in Melbourne.
Add Al Jazeera English please and I’ll be over the moon.
It’s good having the new HD channels for free to start with but when you look closer, like with free to air, not that much of the content is really in HD. Some movies on the HD channels are not really HD for instance – you see what is and isn’t with the “i” button. Not sure if it will be worth paying the extra for HD once the free two weeks are up for HD, especially considering a HD movie can use 10% of disc space on IQ2 and we already have so much recorded to watch at later dates and its only building up leading up to summer (and empties out during non ratings).
When the dust clears we will all see that its nothing more than a powder puff makeover. Fancy having three channels now on which to watch UK TV as if most of the shows on there would benefit from HD. What a disaster loosing BBC.
As for the other new channels well havent we seen that show somewhere before hmm its like a repeat of a repeat!
@grinspoon UKTV HD now has the BBC logo underneath…isn’t this the same channel and content as BBC HD?
@craig that story seems like total BS on Arena’s part. Whenever Arena has content on Foxtel on demand, the shows are shown in full 16:9, so obviously they have access to content in 16:9. Why can’t they just make the channel 16:9 and slowly add 16:9 content?
Had time to look at the new channels .
Very disappointing, lots of American accents and cheap and nasty shows that don’t interest me at all.
I’m more excited about GO and Seven 2 being added !
The got rid of BBC HD? that was one of the best channels
I contacted Arena and they don’t plan on going widescreen until sometime in the middle of 2010, there reason was the cost of converting shows. Which is silly since most can’t be ‘converted’ to 16×9 and shouldn’t. There are lots shows on Arena (and the other 4×3 channels) already made in 16×9 but cropped to 4×3, really how much does it cost to update a few station promos and other equipment to widescreen?
@ross
I’m not too sure but snippets of Super Mario Bros (the first series) was shown as part of a generic promo on the channel so I assume it’s coming at some stage (certainly it was made by DiC which are part owners of the channel)
I like Russo’s idea of a channel for younger adults with shows like One Tree Hill, The OC, 90210 etc.
The unequivocal bottom line here dear friends is that Foxtel are going for quantity over quality. Repackaged/ repeats galore……Still, anything is better than Network alone. P.S Foxtel – you better stick to your word and give us 7Two and Go next week!
Russell, Scifi is in widescreen but yes I agree would have loved it in HD, but I am guessing in time it will be. I also wish the other 4:3 channels would go widescreen, hate the black bars
It’s quite underwhelming after all the hype of Next Generation.
Most disapointed that the Sky News Active channels can’t go full screen, I’m sure when the announcment was made that this was one of the features.
Also unhappy that there are still so many channels in 4:3 aspect ratio, TV1, History, Discovery etc. It’s a joke that they advertise this as next generation but still have channels in 4:3
Style Network is beamed straight in from the US I believe, like E! (They are both owned by the same company) hence the US accent on all promos. These two networks do nothing in Australia, just take the cheap option and beam in from the US. Shame really.
And on the 4:3 channels guys. Remember Foxtel only owns and operates some channels, the others are third party channel providers. Foxtel owns Comedy, Arena and History. Really no idea why those are still in 4:3. In fact History should be in HD. 90% of their programming is sourced from History USA and History USA has nearly all their programming in HD now. Arena could be in HD too as must of it’s programming is from Bravo in the US, and Bravo now produces all its shows in HD. They could do Project Runway Australia in HD too.
TV1 is a separate company. They run Sci Fi and TV. Again, both those could be in widescreen and HD as so much of their content is widescreen and HD. The Discovery Channels like Turbo, Home and the Nat Geo Channels like Wild are beamed in from Asia. They will be stuck in 4:3 for a while. I’m surprised so little channels are HD. Arena, TV1, History, Sci Fi, Lifestyle and Sky News are all perfect candidates for HD
Thanks Foxtel and in particular Channel 7 for coming on board for us satelite subscribers,out of the new channels added Channel 7 is my favourite
Well we can’t get any of the new channels and have actually lost some of our old channels (like some +2′s and Travel and Living). We called them and they said it was because of how old our satellite is. We can supposedly get some sort of upgrade to the satellite but they can’t even guarantee if that will work once it’s done. We are renters in a big block, so are going to write to our landlord, don’t like our chances. We are probably going to cut back to the basic package, because we are now paying for so much that we can’t even see. It’s ridiculous and we are not happy. We only got Foxtel in the first place for the AFL coverage, which is needed if you live in Sydney. However, we came to really like a bunch of other stuff, but it’s now almost pointless. If it wasn’t for the AFL they would lose our business all together.
Not happy.
Kelly, it’s the same for me. I used to use the A-Z search function quite often, but since we upgraded to IQ2, it hasn’t been working. Very frustrating!
@jason when are the Mario Bros cartoons on? Can’t find it on the 14day advanced search on foxtel.tv
Ad in todays Melbourne Herald sun for channels 7 and 72 – said that all subscribers now have 7 and will have 72 November 24th. So I am hoping that means Satellite as well? I assumed it did before i read this thread. Fingers crossed!
I can’t believe that Sky News Local and Sky News Active channels are not available in full screen. After all that hype! Why can’t we watch Sky News UK in full screen? We’re living in 2009!
Glad Austar went for Al Jazeera and not Sky news local
i think there needs to be a channel focused on younger adults showing all the wb shows like felicity, one tree hill, gilmore girls, 7th heaven, everwood, jack and bobby and other shows that fit that like the oc, veronica mars, party of five i also think there should be comedy and comedy talk, which during the day has classic episodes or nightly reruns of the talk shows and also a tnt like channel with las vegas, prison break more male demo channel
Can anyone else confirm that they cant search for programs? Hasnt been working for me for about a week now. Really annoying….just comes up with a message saying there are no programs to display….grrr
More of the same, ho hum.
big whoop moore of the same spread over moore channels
My Weather Active hasn’t changed! Whats the go? I was looking forward to looking up some of our famous Queensland Storms!
Interesting comments guys…. note I am still pursuing an update on Widescreen channels.
On November 24 Foxtel will add 7TWO to the East Coast (satellite) and 7TWO and GO! to cable subscribers. ABC3 will arrive in early December to all Foxtel viewers.
Christopher ,
I mean those are the areas they haven’t expanded in.
Sure they have increased the movies , sport and reality shows .
The classic Australian shows havent changed in years ,if they reach the last ep its back to the beginning again and never put anything thats new old , just old old .The American Who Wants to be a millionaire would have been good or a full game show channel .Thousands of viewers have asked for a soaps channel for years , this would have been the time to launch it .
The terrible soaps are the ones on air and good ones are Off. they don’t have better dramas .I think Y and R is boring.
The Dish screened on E! for a short while and its supposed to be on the Style channel but is not !! What exactly are they doing there ??
and putting a +2 channel for some of the new channels they are over confident there.How do they know the channel will need it yet ?
To d@gp apparently 7two will be broadcast through foxtel on 24th November, not sure about Go or ONE -check archives on this site as thats where I saw the info regarding Foxtel and 7two, can you help David??
Sky News local is a joke, can’t even watch it full screen. Why bother?
@sean: You can still page up/down in the TV guide, you just use the channel up/down buttons…
I was getting frustrated thinking they’d removed it too!
Anyone figured out when The Dish is on yet? Can’t find it in the EPG.
P.S. We rate Orange. Easier to read.
For those asking: “On November 24 it will add 7TWO to the East Coast (satellite) and 7TWO and GO! to cable subscribers. ABC3 will arrive in early December to all Foxtel viewers.”
I’d thought that the FTA HD’s would be on there (i.e satellite) by now…
The room’s there, Foxtel, just don’t charge the earth, for something that’s free.
Also I have heard the majority of some of the new “HD” channels are just upscaled…
Lol, MTV is hardly a music channel anymore. it’s reality tv + some music shows tacked on.
David..Do you know when the GO! channel and Channel 7′s new channel will be shown on Foxtel?
Personally, I agree with Foxtel decision to move MTV away from the real music channels. MTV has become nothing more than garbage ‘reality’ tv.
Also, Movie Network continue to frustrate viewers by broadcasting some of their channels with the channel logo / watermark.
Hmmm first impressions
MTV is in a much better place near to E! which with all the goofy reality shows is it’s natural bretheren
Good to see 2+ channels for 111Hits and SciFi
KidsCo has horrendous presentation but the chance to watch the old Super Mario Bros cartoons makes up for it!
13th Street, Lifestyle You and Style = the most uninspired new channels ever, how about something for men 18-49 like a local version of G4 or Spike.
I don’t get the movie packages (just the 3 entertainment platforms) but I somehow get this FMC – very nice, we were all just watching Bee Movie!
@john bailey, im glad MTV Australia has moved so far away from the 800′s because there is far more reality crap and less ‘M’ in it, if you get my drift. If they dont rectify the ‘M’ issue they might as well remove it from the Foxtel Lineup altogether!
Missed something else which i love..
When you see what is on Now/Next, it only shows a synopsis for those two. Now you can scroll through the shows after Next, and see what the synopsis is. You can also see for other shows/channels when you are on IQ playback. Great improvement.
I dont mind the orange colour, I prefer it to the blue. I changed to from blue to orange today when I read here that you could.
The changes they have made are impressive, but a few dissapointing things. The Good: More channels, more plus 2′s. Better interactivity and functionality. Change OSD colour from blue to orange.
The Bad: Style Network: Watermark is not overly sharp in quality and a little small. The commercials are all voiced over by american accents.
13th Street: Watermark is in the wrong position to enjoy viewing, and its too big.
4:3: The channels that we have complained about for years are still not in widescreen – TV1, Comedy, Arena, E!, Hallmark, Discovery, History to name a few.
Fashion HD: On Fashion Channel, at the bottom is a scroll message stating that there is now a new HD channel for this for Asia/Australia and a couple of other places. We dont have it. (I never watch it, no one does, so who cares really)
Sky News Active: Active screens are shocking for video quality and still unable to view in full screen on this or on Local.
Turbo Max: Do we really need a plus 2 channel for this? Really? Waste..
Channel Locations: APAC, BBC World News, CNBC, Bloomberg, all pushed away from the News channels – makes no sense. MTV should have stayed at 808.
On Screen Display: Why cant they show the fulll channel name?
FTA: Networks not paying for Adeladie to have FTA on Foxtel.
- I seem to have the page up/down in TV Guide. Am I missing what you are trying to say?
@christopher sorry i meant NatGeo Wild. I don’t get the Adventure channel. It’s pretty poor form to launch a new 4:3 channel, especially as the other NatGeo channels are in 16:9.
Where is GO and Seven 2 – and why is MTV away from the other music channels ?
All works good for me. And yeah, everyone should go into settings and change colour to blue instead of the hideous orange if they haven’t already.
ross, NatGeo Adventure has been on Foxtel for ages, it’s not a new channel. I doubt it’s owned by Foxtel either, they just pay for it from whoever does own it, so it’s not up to Foxtel whether it’s widescreen or not.
Billy, I don’t even watch them but even I know there are “game shows, soaps, and classic Australian programming” on Foxtel. Stuff like Price is Right and Jeopardy, all the terrible US and UK soaps, and a bunch of old Aussie stuff as well. Not sure what you’re talking about with the movie channels either, through Showtime and Movie One basically all major studios are represented.
Sean said
‘I miss having the option to ‘page down’ in the TV Guide, however do enjoy the channel view function.’
That function still remains Sean – it has not been removed. Have you tried using your channel + – button on your remote? Works for me.
Jimmy, they have changed the way the HD channels work. You now only receive channels in HD that you subscribe to in SD as well. So you can no longer ‘bypass’ buying packages to get those few channels on HD.
All I can say about this new channel/feature launch is… I finally have Channel Seven! And it is about time! Now I can finally record all my 7 shows which I have had to miss previously. I was ecstatic when my iQ1 box was updated to look like the iQ2 UI, which looks so much better than the outdated blue and yellow and white. I’ve had a flick through the new channels so I am yet to determine if I will watch any of them, but I tried Sky News Local and it is fantastic. I love the fact I can get a 24 hour local news channel now. Keep up the improvements Foxtel.
Why did they move BBC World News? It was so much easier when all news channels were grouped together.
Meanwhile I am still waiting for an iPhone EPG app. Sky+ has one in the UK, why can’t we???
My screen is blue and grey, not orange and grey
i keep trying to record shows off isuggest just to test it out, but everytime i try, it says i’m not subscribed to the correct package, even though i pay for Platnum HD package…. weird!
However, the recording shows from the ads, by pressing the green button works, and it an excellent idea!
The channel flicking might last a bit longer but the result will be the same.
Repeats are repeats. We know when something has screened on another channel before and the weekend programming is a summary of Mon to Fri !! Why does it have be on again ? Are we studying for an exam ?
and something for everyone apparently .
Where are the game shows ? soaps ? and classic Australian programming .The new channels don’t have much Australian programming. and regardless of all the movie channels I can still think of 50 American movies they will probably never air !
In regards to Weather Active – there are problems with the service and they hope to have it rectified within the next couple of weeks.
l like Lifestyle YOU and Style Network. I like the EPG single channel view but it doesn’t scroll 24hrs. It just goes back to normal view. So far this morning the EPG doesn’t seem to refresh as quickly. I’m dissapointed skynews uk is still not full screen. if channel v can do v for me then why cant skynews.isuggest seems a bit pointless. I don’t find seeing a cover picture any more enticing than scrolling through the epg or reading the foxtel mag. Skynews local – A good feature but there were a few news items it didn’t have for Perth today
Could not care less about the new channels or services, as most of them are just the same old shows rejuggled, or rubbish no-one has ever heard of (eg 13th Street) – plus Im one of those people who dont have IQ, so half the new features don’t apply to me.
The One and Only thing I want with Foxtel is more channels in Widescreen, especially TV1 & The Comedy Channel. It ruins the viewing experience when you know a show has been edited to fit the screen (and I hate watching shows stretched to fit my TV, as I also hate having black bars on the sides of my screen).
TV1: 30 Rock, Raymond, House, Criminal Intent, SVU, Monk, NCIS, Numbers, Office, Psych & more.
Comedy: All the late night shows, half of which are “exclusive”, yet broadcast in inferior quality.
love the new channels and features, more choice can only be a good thing. the new skynews active/local is really good, huge amounts of news in text, although i wish you could view all screens in fullscreen. so far the new weather active hasn’t launched. weird how isuggest appears for l non iq customer (although it can’t be used). it seems strange to have channel 7 on foxtel after all this time lol. overall very pleased.
I agree about the appalling new layout, with the orange borders. The old style was far better. This new one is worse than something you’d find on community tv. How about having the option of the old format.
Dumb question but I did a search on the Foxtel online Guide for Top Gear which is on BBC Knowledge and the channel is not listed. Go over to the Austar (which I have) guide, that has not worked good for me in the past and it’s there. What’s going on?
Only other problem is now I have to remember the new numbers for SicFi (why isn’t it SyFy?) and BBC World but it’s worth it for the extra channels. All in time for the summer drought on FTA…
Weather Active is not updated to what was promised. Although on the Website it says coming Soon. It is advertised in promotions it was to be today.
So far… not bad. The oinly thing I’ve found frustrating is the moving of exisitng channels to accomadate the newbies (ie: Comedy is now 114 instead of 113, Food moved from 117 to 118). Also found it odd, and unecessary, that BBC World News has been moved away from the News grouping and is now tacked on just before the Cartoon channels.
I miss having the option to ‘page down’ in the TV Guide, however do enjoy the channel view function.
The addition of the many new timeshift / +2 hour channels will only prove beneficial if the existing channels take adnavtage of this and cut back on daily repeats. Not much point having two channel both running repeat cycles of 6 hour blocks.
I have found a new guilty pleasure in Style Newtwork and KidsCo. Some fun time-burners in there.
KidsCo is yet another 4:3 channel.
NatGeo Adventure is yet another 4:3 channel with pillar and letter boxing.
SkyNews Local is useless postage stamp sized video. If I want dial up quality video I’ll fire up my flux capacitor.
MTV is too far out of the way for me, as I like to flick between music channels when I want music, so I essentially have one less choice for music.
iSuggest is nice as well as the new firmware on IQ1.
The other new channels seem to have nothing but crap on them, but maybe that crap will grow on me over time.
No 7TWO, GO! or Ten’s Sporting channel for satellite subscribers (on the NSW Central Coast, at least). The new channels seem to be aimed squarely at teenaged girls. Only exception apears to be 13th Avenue (or whatever they’ve called it).
They did 2 reboots, cause they botched the 1st one.. The 1st Update was Next Generation but there was some things that didn’t work right 1st time around.
-Sky News Active (didn’t take you to the Sky News Multiview)
-Sky Business Active (button didnt work)
-EPG Guide didn’t work
..sadly with Sky News Multiview, You still cannot watch SkyUK in FullScreen
((
Hi there Steve- if you go into SetUp and then select Guide Colour Option it allows you to change the colour of the guide from Orange to Blue and Vice Versa. Hope that helps? (I have IQ1 btw)
With regard to new chns – Sky News Local seems pretty good its a pity Foxtel dont include a function where you can select a full screen view of your Local Sky News
A big thanks to TV Tonight this is the first place I come to (now) for up to date news on what Foxtel is doing so Thanks heaps and keep up the good work!!!
All is good for me so far but on the IQ unit having troubles accessing anyting will have to call and find out what is wrong with the unit
David you are magnificent – reporting on a product only hours after it has been released is fantastic. Well done.
Love the new iSuggest feature but have noticed one thing wrong with it. If you select a programme from within that area, and it happens to be a series, rather than a one off programme e.g. Ruby or Close to Home, once you select it and it goes into your planner it does not series link it…
Other than that, so far pretty good.
Steve you can change the orange to blue in Active.
The ugly = Austar
no change to their EPG or software, just the same old clunky outdated software running on the mystar STB. no new weather active for me either.
I’m having a bit of a problem… I’ve got movie everything but sport… and yet W HD and the movie networks HD aren’t showing up for me… thought since I had the previous HD package (HD Explore) I’d get transferred over to the new plan…
So far so good, except I’m still pi**ed that I have had to pay the new rate for November. Why should I have to pay extra for channels that I only get for half the month?? Ripped off!
The only problem I have so far is that the new orange bar that gives the show information is really a eye saw.
I know you can change the colour of it but still its not easy on the eyes.
Also your dedication is very appreciatied! Not many other people would be up at this time to post someting on their website. Well its the first that I’ve seen.