Australia's Foxtel gives details on upcoming IPTV service for H109

November 10, 2008 - Australian pay-TV operator Foxtel has revealed at a Telstra Investor's Day last week that it plans to launch an IPTV service in the first half of next year, which will be delivered to the currently inactive Ethernet port on the back of its 'iQ2' set-top boxes and will be available for all subscribers, allowing them to download videos on-demand.

The company, which operates a cable TV service over hybrid fibre-coaxial cable in the Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth metropolitan areas, as well as a satellite service outside this footprint, also introduced a new 16GB USB key device called the 'iQ2Go' which will allow subscribers to take programmes stored on the set-top box and play them back on a portable device. No details were released on compatibility with devices such as Macs and PSPs.

Foxtel is a joint venture 50% owned by Australian telecoms giant Telstra (News Corporation and Consolidated Media Holdings each hold 25%), and this would appear to be the first launch of an IPTV service over a managed network by a pay-TV operator in the country.