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The Foxtel Play question

Justifying piracy because you won't pay for a full Foxtel subscription, doesn't really make piracy ok.

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2016-04-30_0050

A debate about Foxtel’s streaming service, Foxtel Play has been ignited through a Kotaku article, republished via The Age /SMH under the headline “Why I refuse to feel sorry for torrenting Game of Thrones.”

With such a provocative headline I immediately found myself asking, “Would it also be ok to download Wolf Creek?”

It begins next month on the Fairfax-Nine SVOD Stan.

Upon closer inspection the argument surrounds problems with Foxtel Play.

Foxtel Play is designed as a ‘Foxtel-Lite’ service enabling instant access to channels on desktop & devices, without a full home installation. Pricing starts at $25 a month (with a $5 add-on discount for movies+drama during Game of Thrones season).

The author Mark Serrels has clearly had frustration with the service. He outlines several problems, including crashing, buffering, customer service and number of allowed devices. He complains he tried to pay for the service but it just wasn’t up to scratch.

The article makes a very good point about Foxtel Play only being available in Standard Definition.

In 2016, I agree that isn’t good enough when others such as Netflix are offering HD at a lower entry. That should be addressed by new CEO Peter Tonagh asap.

But does that really make it ok to then turn to piracy? Hardly.

I get that he doesn’t want to pay for a full installation to watch one show. But Subscription TV models around the world work on packaging, including HBO in the US. If they ran on a “I just want this show” model, they would soon evaporate -who would make Game of Thrones then? And at our 24 million population such a proposition also isn’t comparable to the USA’s 322 million. Seriously…

Yes there is a wait for the DVD and iTunes release -just as there is in the US (Australia actually had the iTunes access for an extra season than the US). HBO is very strategic in its release and rights for its content. With the budget required to produce GoT that’s hardly a surprise.

Many of the articles about Australia topping piracy rates for GoT this week made little mention that the numbers were facilitated by the ANZAC Day holiday: more people at home willing to pirate, and more waking hours (post 11am) to enable it (TorrentFreak actually acknowledged the timezone factor).

Game of Thrones season opener saw a record 727,000 viewers on the first day. If Australia has 12.5% of the 1 million downloads TorrentFreak quoted that’s a potential 125,000 pirates, putting the balance overwhelmingly in the legal -and not illegal- camp.

This would all be a better argument if GoT was taken out of the argument.

The issue is really about the quality and pricing of Foxtel Play.

Foxtel’s response to the article is as follows: “This week’s viewership numbers show that the Game of Thrones season 6 opener was the most watched series premiere in Australian subscription TV history, which speaks volumes about fans who are eager to do the right thing when watching this incredibly popular show. Foxtel has taken extra steps to make it as accessible as possible to Australian fans, including simulcasting Game of Thrones at the same time as the US and, once again, offering special pricing for Foxtel Play subscribers.”

No word on plans for HD. We’ll need clarity on that sooner rather than later.

NB: If you’re looking to weigh in on this one remember site policy still stands: it’s fine to discuss piracy as a legit industry issue, it’s not so fine to endorse it. Please word appropriately.

36 Responses

  1. You know this it is a self entitlement argument, why should this be available for all just because you want to watch it, yes I am a Foxtel, Stan, Netflix subscriber, these companies have the rights sometimes exclusively to own and premiere at their will, its called business. Self entitlement does not rule the world, nor should it, These agreements between HBO, Studios whoever is a business and it has been weighed up as to what is best for that business, if you miss out because you choose not to pay for privilege then tough, wait for the DVD release.

  2. Agree wholeheartedly with this article. How do people expect super high budget shows like GoT to be made if people don’t pay for it.

    Also, regarding the ‘bundling’ of programs and channels on pay TV offerings – this is clearly the business model for this industry. I think people forget media businesses are just that – businesses. Whinging that they do things to make a profit is kind of weird. You don’t have an inalienable ‘right’ to get whatever product you want on your terms. You don’t get to walk into a news agent and buy one article from a magazine.

    If there is a demand for lower cost services, then hopefully competition forces will bring that about. Let competition sort the market out. But people not paying for content is not the answer.

    1. While I agree that people shouldn’t pirate it’s been shown that piracy does not cause much loss of revenue to the content creators (distributors, maybe). Most people that torrent / download / stream via VPN fall into two categories – those who wouldn’t pay for the product anyway and those who end up buying the DVDs when they eventually come out. So I don’t think good quality, high budget shows are at risk here.

      You may not be able to buy a single article from a magazine but you can just stand their and read it!

      However, you are right about bundling being the current model for the Pay TV industry. Foxtel have had the luxury of being a virtual monopoly for years and, like Telstra in the 2000’s, have become listless offering an average product at a premium price. Competition is a good thing and they’ll have to adapt or die.

      1. Game of Thrones costs alot of money to make, why should some people watch it for free, while other’s pay for it(foxtel subscription)? You either get a foxtel subscription, or wait for the dvd/bluray release, the unability to talk about the latest episode around the water cooler at work because you don’t have foxtel does not cut it. Theft is Theft – plain and simple.

        1. You appear to have misunderstood my comment. I wasn’t suggesting that pirating is ok. In fact, I thought that my first seven words conveyed my intended meaning pretty clearly.

          Theft may be theft but video piracy isn’t which is why there is separate terminology and it’s dealt with by separate laws.

          1. @secret squirrel, People who watch Game of Thrones by any other means other than a foxtel subscription or other means of paying for it like a vpn and an access to HBO, is watching it for free! That is theft, or how you described it as “Video Theft”.
            If Person A pays a monthly subscription for Foxtel to watch Game of Thrones, While Person B watches the latest season of GoT via Channel BT, how is it fair for Person A eh? Never mind if Person B is going to buy the bluray in Feb the following year, they still watched the season at the same time as “paying customers”. Person A might as well also download the latest season of GoT instead for free, because “everyone else is”. It is simple, Game of Thrones is a Premium Product, you either pay to watch it in April, or you wait until Feb/March the following year for the bluray/dvd and but it then.

          2. Why are you still trying to convince me of something that I have already stated very clearly? Twice. We have nothing to discuss here.

  3. It’s a simple issue with a definitive turning point: A few years back you could get GoT off iTunes and Google Play the day after it aired. Foxtel then paid a ridiculous amount to become the home of HBO in Australia, effectively getting rid of all legal ways to watch the show without a subscription overnight. They assumed this would force people who enjoyed GoT to get a Foxtel subscription. They thought wrong.
    This is not about IP, this is about protecting 20th century distribution methods in the current age, because without it they’ve got some sport, a few niche shows, a tonne of crap, and nothing else.

    1. My understanding is GoT isn’t avail in the US on iTunes until after HBO season either. This was changed several seasons ago. As the article notes, Australia had it via this method for a season longer than the US before this was closed.

      1. True, but they have HBO Now which means you can pay for GoT and watch it legally without a cable subscription and without subscribing to packages of channels you don’t care about. As I said, it’s about controlling and protecting distribution in this country and eliminating choice. Other countries have multiple ways to access GoT legally, we have only 1 outlet and people obviously don’t like it so they pirate, rightly or wrongly.

        1. Looking at HBONOW it is $15US per month on devices. So yes Foxtel Play is twice the price without HD. I presume if we had 322m population we might get a cheaper entry point. There are premium titles such as GoT and Wentworth that aren’t avail on Presto as first-run, but only on Foxtel Play.

  4. What’s missing from the original article is any information on the author’s internet connection. buffering can be caused by a crappy internet service (typical with most services delivered over old copper wires) or it can be caused by an old/cheap modem/router.

    1. I guess you must have read a different article. I quote: “Netflix runs at full 1080p always. If the show is available in HD it runs in HD, without fail. Despite the fact I have terrible internet”.

      Not only does he say that’s his internet is not particularly good, but he is still able to stream Netflix in 1080 resolution without any problems.

      So, I think you can eliminate his router or street copper as being the source of his difficulties.

  5. I agree up to a point. It’s all well and good when DVDs will be released, but what about when they’re not? I think the biggest issue is that free-to-air doesn’t deliver what’s promised. Ten was with American Idol for several seasons right up until the last one. Programs start on free-to-air and get dropped because they don’t rate well. I remember a show I loved called Three Rivers which had its first episode screened and then it was dropped. When there are ads hyping a program, suckering in people and investing them in a show, then things get dropped, where does that leave TV viewers? Some things might be on pay TV, but certainly not all.

  6. The original article on Kotaku garnered over 500 replies. I would be really interested if the author, Mark Serrels replied to your article. Any interest in reaching out to him?

    1. “Copyright infringement”?

      To be clear: I don’t disagree that it infringes civil law. But I do have a real problem with rights holders trying to turn it into a criminal offence & expecting the government and everyone else to police it for them. Getting people to use criminal terms like ‘stealing’ and ‘theft’ instead of the correct civil terms simply encourages that.

  8. I cannot believe people justify theiving of game of thrones by downloading it and not paying a cent for it(and that includes the excuse, ” Oh, I will buy the bluray/dvd of GoT in Feb/March of Following year”). If I want a can of coke and am thirsty, I am not going to go into a shop and steal one, I am going to pay for it. If you want to watch Game of Thrones in April, you pay for it also, via foxtel subscription, not by The Pirate Bay for $0.00, otherwise wait until the bluray comes out in Feb. Not fair for the people who do the right thing and get Foxtel, while other people just get the stuff they want to watch for Free.

  10. People seem to be making out that piracy is a new fad and has only occurred since the internet made it probably more accessible but in reality its probably no more worse than I can remember. When I was a kid I remember going around to a friends house because they got a copy of a movie that wasn’t released in Australia yet and that was on VHS and a few copies would eventually circulate around the whole town and this wasn’t excusive to the town where I lived either. My father, when he was young, use to record songs from the radio using a microphone and reel tapes, as he could rarely afford to buy records. I remember sitting and taping songs from countdown and then Rage using my tape recorder as well. It’s not a past fad for neighbours and friends to share shows from Foxtel or even DVD’s that they have purchased. My current neighbour offered me to watch game of thrones as she had…

  11. I agree with Mr J. Theft is theft.

    People in general are displaying huge entitlement issues these days. I demand HD!! I will not be made to wait a week/X days/ X hours! It’s as if society overall has become one big walking Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Strange times.

    1. There is an entitlement issue & people will always jump to the next excuse. However HD is a big issue.

      Except for Netflix and Stan, streaming and catch up services seem to be designed for mobile devices. Put them on a TV & they are awful quality where it makes shows unwatchable.

      SD FTA channels are awful quality on big screens. Made worse with Foxtel’s downgrading of quality and compression.

      The new X-Files in SD on my home cinema was such a low in quality I couldn’t watch it. Then all the catch up services for FTA are low quality with the same issue.

      Here’s one of the dilemmas the services don’t cater for people who don’t have much of a disposable income, but they offer a low quality product that doesn’t cater for people with a lot of disposable income.

      Besides people who refuse to pay, they create pirates at both ends of the income spectrum. FYI I have Foxtel &…

  12. If you walked into a shop and saw something you wanted, then saw that it was too expensive, then saw that the queue was really long, would it be ok to just steal it?
    What is the difference between that justification and piracy? GoT is not a god-given right, if it is too expensive or inconvenient for you, then you have the right to walk away and deny them your business. Doesn’t give you the right to break the law.

    1. “What is the difference between that justification and piracy?”

      Tangible vs non-tangible property? An actual cost vs (at best) a potential loss? A criminal offence vs a civil wrong?

      But to keep on-topic: I suspect that one of the bigger issues for many people is the need (& expense) to have multiple subscriptions. Want GoT? $25/mo to Foxtel. Want other HBO shows? Another $10/mo to Presto. Want to watch Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt or House of Cards? Another $9 for Netflix, thank you. Looking forward to the new Twin Peaks? Get ready to pay $10 to Stan…

    2. Completely different. If I walk into a shop to buy a Barbie for my daughter, I can by the Barbie. In the Foxtel world, I also need to buy the ken, the van, the beach scene, the extra dresses, the suit for ken, the African American Barbie, etc etc. I can’t just buy the Barbie. Let me just buy the Barbie please and i’ll happily give you the money for what I want, not for this other rubbish that I have no interest in.

      I have Foxtel Platinum and have done for years but have no interest in Game of Thrones.

      The model Foxtel has is an absolute disgrace. Good luck to those who enjoy the show.

    3. This reminds me of the anti-piracy ads on DVDs which said “You wouldn’t steal a car, so why would you steal a DVD”. I always wondered if car thieves saw these ads and went “Awesome, I steal cars, so I may as well start stealing DVDs!!”

  13. Foxtel are a joke when it comes to HD. The lack of HD on their streaming services (Go, Play and Anytime) has been questioned for a number of years now, and still no action from Foxtel. If you look at Foxtel’s community forums, there are threads going back to 2014 requesting HD on their streaming services. But Foxtel continues to ignore this.
    Foxtel’s HD channels themselves can hardly be called HD, they have reduced the bandwidth so much that the picture quality is actually worse than DVD.
    Whilst I certainly do not condone piracy, Foxtel deserve everything they get due to the extremely poor service they provide.

    2. foxtel is a joke did you know that old Austar customers most still have the old austar boxes which are so old and antiquated there just has to be a bit of rain and the reception disappears and foxtel is too tight to replace them for its customers for free .they want to charge us for foxtel boxes .how is that for customer service .dosent matter if you have been a customer for ten years or more .they are not interested .its called customer service foxtel has none

  14. I had Foxtel Play and share his frustration. Like you David, I cannot see this as a justification to pirate a television show. If Netflix can offer 4K (Still no idea how considering the internet speeds we have in this country), then Foxtel and certainly offer HD on it’s PLAY and GO! platforms

  15. I’m here for the Foxtel Play discussion: Foxtel need to desperately upgrade their streaming service. It’s so stupidly petty how it’s running now. I’d sign up in an instant if the streaming was of Stan / Netflix quality.

  16. I totally agree with your article David.
    The Foxtel Play service is way over priced. The pricing is basically the same as a full on installation without all the expense to Foxtel. When it was brought out I think it was more for people that couldn’t physically get Foxtel… i.e Some Renters. But it is a SVOD service, putting it in the same category as Netflix and Stan. When you look at it that way it is one of the most expensive on the market…. $25 is the basic package……
    Foxtel may be holding off HD and making it cheaper as a lot of people would consider cancelling their physical Foxtel Subscriptions as they can see how easy Netflix and the like are to use… Foxtel would lose money.

    1. Actually it’s an IPTV service. Try comparing it to other IPTV services like Fetch TV.

      You are correct in saying that they would lose traditional cable/satellite customers if they made it significantly cheaper to try and compete to services they have no business competing with (the 2010s equivalent of the weekly shelf at Blockbuster).

      What they should do is make the service comparable with high quality HD and recording functionality but charge a similar or marginally lower price. Remember streaming still costs them bandwidth, something that is a new cost for them and something they don’t have scaled and efficient yet like Netflix does.

      1. That smacks of semantics. To say that they have no business competing with Netflix or Stan is to completely misunderstand the market. Foxtel are not in the “IPTV market” they are in the market to deliver television entertainment to paying customers. Consumers don’t differentiate.

        Foxtel’s main point of difference is sport altho’ some of that is also on FTA. They also have ads. Ignoring Netflix as a competitor because they are an SVOD service and not IPTV would be to stick one’s head in the sand.

  17. I’m not sure why Foxtel is so slow when it comes to HD issues. Foxtel play and also Foxtel go should be HD. I think it’s almost time for foxtel to drop the $10 charge for HD for home install as well. If (most) FTA networks have HD main channels now I am sure Foxtel should be offering the same service for free. In regards to piracy, I think it is past being a discussion point by mainstream media ( present company exclude David). Foxtel did the right thing playing it the same time as US. Pay for it now or wait for ITunes/DVD.

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