When Australia goes in to bat against South Africa in November it will mark a new era of Ultra HD live broadcasts, but Foxtel is already looking to the AFL as it hammers home its advantage over the nation's free-to-air broadcasters.
The Ultra HD push comes as the pay TV giant continues to shift customers across from Telstra's metropolitan HFC cables to Optus' nationwide satellite service, as the cable networks are rolled into the NBN.
Foxtel's access to the cable networks ends in 2023 and the majority of customers are already connected via satellite but, in an effort to fast-track this migration, its new Ultra HD broadcasts are only available to satellite customers.
Foxtel’s new 4K channel will show a sampling of Ultra HD content at launch.
In order to receive the new Ultra HD channel, cable customers need a satellite dish on the roof — which could incur a $100 installation fee — as well as Foxtel's new $125 iQ4 set-top box. Unlike the iQ3, the new iQ4 only works with Foxtel's satellite service, letting users play, pause, rewind and record 4K broadcasts.
The existing iQ3 is available in two models, supporting cable or satellite connections. As such, customers eventually moving from cable to satellite will need to replace their set-top box even if they're not chasing Ultra HD channels.
The iQ4 can also stream Ultra HD video from the internet, as can the Foxtel Now and Telstra TV 2 streaming boxes launched last year. Despite this, Foxtel has no immediate plans to upgrade its streaming services to Ultra HD in line with rival video services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Stan (co-owned by Fairfax Media).
While countries like South Korea have embraced both 4K broadcasting and 4K online simulcasts, the nature of Australia's broadband infrastructure makes satellite the most practical 4K delivery platform, says Foxtel director of product Mike Ivanchenko.
Foxtel’s iQ4 set-top box.
"We're absolutely looking at 4K streaming, both on-demand and linear, but right now we want to focus on guaranteed quality," Ivanchenko says. "We're using satellite because feedback from customers says that — particularly for sport — they expect 4K to work all the time."
"If we want the ability deliver 4K content to everybody Australia-wide, and to guarantee it works all the time, then the only way we can do that today is with satellite."
Meanwhile Australia's free-to-air broadcasters are unlikely to quickly follow Foxtel's move into Ultra HD broadcasting. ABC and SBS are already trialing the DVB-T2 standard, including 4K test broadcasts, but the greater challenge for the country's free-to-air networks is squeezing a new 4K channel into their allotted spectrum.
Foxtel will launch a single Ultra HD channel in October, included as part of its HD Sport packages. The channel will offer a mix of documentaries, concerts and movies ahead of the first live Ultra HD cricket broadcast on November 4.
Beyond this, Foxtel is "not very far" away from offering the AFL in Ultra HD, Ivanchenko says.
"It won't be this season but you will see more sports coming after cricket," he says. "It will scale up over time, we are pretty much using Australia's supply of 4K equipment to get this running.
"Starting with cricket is a good challenge because of the number of cameras required, but if there are multiple games on simultaneously the cameras obviously can't be in two places at once."
Foxtel plans to add more 4K channels over time, Ivanchenko says, and the satellite service has the capacity to handle extra channels. Rather than Foxtel replacing the HD channels with Ultra HD, he expects to see fewer and fewer SD channels over time.
"As the average Australia television starts to extend beyond 55 inches you need to support that screen with the resolution it expects," he says. "Obviously a standard-definition picture on a 77-inch OLED does not look very good.
"The bottom line is, if it's filmed in 4K we will get it in 4K; to demonstrate the value and the premium nature of a Foxtel subscription."
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