Well, it’s going to cost me that and here is why.
The release of Foxtel’s new IPTV service exclusively to Xbox 360 consoles came through this morning and the short outline is that you can get basic Foxtel channels streamed over the internet to your Xbox 360 for $20 a month. I love the idea – here you have a nice bright console sitting under the tv, and if you want the world of foxtel you can use the one box to watch it and don’t need to get a cable guy in to install a new box and fat cable.
But it’s not all rosy, and the pricing at ‘$20’ a month is not the true cost.
Yes, you need to buy the console, but I am not talking about that. You need to sign up to Xbox Live Gold first. This is Xbox’s online content community, and for those that are keen to pay $99 (you can pay a little cheaper if you shop around) a year you will get a world of content delivered through your Xbox 360. Xbox Live is great, I love it, but it costs around $99 a year to subscribe and you can’t get Foxtel unless you do.
So, we’re currently paying $20 a month for the basic package on Foxtel and $99 a year for the subscription. That is around $339 a year. But that is not the end of the cost.
IPTV sucks a lot of data. So if you are using a puny little download allowance on your internet then toughen up, because Foxtel is going to suck data and lots of it. At home I am using around 5 gigs month, and I am about to go to 50 gigs a month. Why? Because I am downloading catch up TV and Movies, all legit and legal, but the extra bandwidth cost is $10 a month.
So, let’s have a little more transparency Foxtel/Microsoft – the new service will cost ME, $460 a year (I have added in the $120 a year for the higher broadband package) or $38 a mont, not $20.