The launch of Foxtel on Xbox 360 was a mostly successful, but bogged down by the fact that no unmetered deal was available with any Australian Broadband providers. Now Microsoft and Foxtel have announced that the Foxtel service on Xbox 360 will be unmetered for Telstra BigPond users.
This arrangement with Telstra is a big win for FOXTEL on Xbox 360 users,” claimed FOXTEL Patrick Delany, Executive Director of Product & Sales, “allowing unmetered access to thousands of hours of great programming – all without a FOXTEL fixed term contract. There are around 1.3 million Xbox consoles in Australia and getting unmetered access to FOXTEL on Xbox 360 is now as simple as plugging into BigPond internet to give subscription TV a go.”
In addition to unmetered access to Foxtel, Telstra BigPond users will also have access to six BigPond TV channels covering sport, racing and news.
“Hundreds of thousands of Australian homes now have access to BigPond TV channels which makes a compelling reason to get online through Telstra,” claimed J-B Rousselot, Telstra’s Executive Director of Media. “BigPond’s unmetered content is already a hit with T-Box, Samsung and LG customers, and we’re pleased to be bringing unmetering to customers connected to FOXTEL on Xbox 360.”
This is the deal that most expected when the Foxtel packages were initially announced for Xbox 360 – but late last year Microsoft were happy to launch the deal without any unmetered access deals with Aussie ISPs. At that point Microsoft was officially claiming that internet caps were “big enough” to cope with the bandwidth required for Foxtel on Xbox 360.
Wonder what caused the change of heart?
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