Telstra, who are a 50% partner in Foxtel, is tipped to dump its T-Box offering with the release of an IP enabled Q3 box from Foxtel.
Telstra has over 800,000 T Box customers but only 400,000
are actually active on their network. The rest are being used as
“bricks” said one of industry observer.
According to sources hundreds of Telstra T Box customers
have been witnessing a bad streaming experience because the T Box is a low cost
box that only has 802.11g on board.
Another problem is the limited storage capacity with the
device only able to deliver 320GB of content.
Users are also unable to record subscription channels and
there is no tablet/phone companion similar to what Fetch TV delivers via Optus
and iiNet.
Insiders are now tipping that Telstra is working closely
with Foxtel marketing in an effort to convince Telstra T Box owners to take up
a subscription to the new iQ3 which is set to be released in November 2014.
When Telstra set up its T-Box offering, sceptics were of the
view that the low cost offering of a content box was initiated in an effort to
build a target audience of consumers who could one day be moved over to Foxtel.
“It now appears that that time has arrived” said a major
competitor to Foxtel.
Both Foxtel and Telstra are refusing to comment on the
ongoing strategy for T Box customers.
Another interesting stat came out of the AFR article today
with saying 185k T-box customers getting Foxtel via their T-box. As they have given 11 free Foxtel channels
for the past 2+ years, during which time they have “sold” 400k+ services,
which suggests that well below 50% are using what is free.
Even lower when you consider that some of the
185k would have been upgrades from before the 11 free channels were on offer.
