Participant Observations 26/8/17 - Foxtel Now, One Week In

It's now been about a week that I've had the OTT Foxtel subscription, and it's looking increasing likely that I will end the Foxtel satelitse subscription and go pure OTT instead. Here is a matrix I created to quantify my consumption:

Characteristic	Best	Middle	Worst
Functionality	PTV	FTA	OTT
Fidelity	PTV	FTA	OTT
Advertising	PTV	FTA	OTT
Audio & Sound	FTA	OTT	PTV
Latency/Delay	PTV	FTA	OTT
Signal Stability	PTV	FTA	OTT
Cost	FTA	OTT	PTV

Some notes:

• PTV is clearly the best platform for sports except possibly the most important one - cost
• Presentation is not included. It's more on taste, and the Foxtel platforms carry a combination of their production, and C7's production.
• Advertising is interesting - FTA ads are regionalised, while OTT is national and PTV has none. 
• Advertising matters - as soon as an ad comes on, I almost always reach for the remote or the phone.
• Audio and Sound quality is not represented in the table, it is a descending matrix of volume. FTA is the loudest, PTV the quietest. I would think PTV audio quality is actually the best.
• OTT is about 30 seconds behind the other platforms in terms of latency or delay. Again, this matters when I'm texting with friends during games. It would be even more of an issue if I was betting during games.
• OTT is well behind in stability. It takes anywhere between 30 seconds to 2 minutes for the OTT signal to stabilise when changing channels, so changing channels is much rarer. Also it can pixelate occasionally. But I was overall impressed with the quality of the stability and fidelity of the OTT signal, especially on mid-length shots. The main difference comes in long shots and ball tracking, where the movement can get a bit noisy. Some playing around with TV settings is useful, but it's not as good as PTV no matter the settins adjustment.

So why am I getting rid of the PTV? Basically, the cost mainly, and I don't think the added functionality of it warrants keeping it - it's only marginally better.

This raises the question of how 'hard core' I am as an AFL fan, because if I were truly hard core about being an AFL fan and seeing my team in the best possibly way, I might pay whatever it took.

But I think the research is also about finding the strategies to access content for people that can't afford it, so in some respects I'm trying to establish what I'm willing to forgo (functionality, latency, fidelity, advertising) in addition to the cheaper cost, in order to get access to my team every week.

Participant Observations 22/8/17 - Becoming a Foxtel Now Customer

Foxtel Now.

So Last Thursday I signed up for the Foxtel OTT play, Foxtel Now. Here are some preliminary observations.

• There is a certain lack of functionality. You cannot series link content, and you cannot record shows. If a show airs on Foxtel and you miss it, in most cases the show does not become available on Foxtel Now until about 24 hours after the first airing for an on-demand viewing.
• There is no Foxtel store, but I RARELY buy shows, and use the store for free content, that I can mostly get via the on-demand part of the OTT app.
• Changing channels is something of an issue, although not something that makes a huge difference. It's slower to change, and sometimes, especially with Live TV, it can take a minute or two for the signal to settle in and establish, without buffering, jumping, skipping etc.
• The quality varies from Live TV to On-Demand. This is especially the case with live sport, with some lack of picture quality observed in AFL. One of the most annoying aspects is the ball-in-flight flicker that you don't get with the satellite, although I may be able to fix this by adjusting frame rates and smoothing etc. On-demand though is virtually flawless, with no discernible difference from the satellite.
• It is a LOT cheaper. I'm looking at $65 a month for almost the same package I get now on the satellite, that I pay $117 a month for. 
• I'm running Foxtel Now on an app on my tablet and then chromecasting it to the TV. Some of the quality issues mentioned above might be resolved once I can hook my PC directly up to the television and basically use it as a monitor.
• Your login can be used across 5 devices. I have shared one with a friend, but I will probably have to use the remaining ones myself (PC, tablet, phone, and laptop). However, it is good being able to share the logins. I feel this is part of the informal media economy that I have been reading about in the book by Lobato and Thomas. I was generally excited for my friend when he sent me a photo showing me that he had used my login to get Foxtel on his computer.

• One issue that remains to be seen is the data usage. Some performance issue may be resolved by increasing my NBN tier. At the moment I'm paying $70 a month for 500GB of data with a 12-down, 1-up plan, but a 25-down, 5-up tier might improve performance as well.
• I really feel that my satellite subscription is on the way out. This is for many reasons, apart from just cost. I feel the OTT play will cut my dependency on Foxtel, and increase my viewing of free-to-air content, as well as other OTT content such as Netflix. Getting Foxtel Now has also really made me want to get Amazon Prime. This will have to wait until my PC is up and running (it's currently out of action) but I also want to see myself as something of an early adopter in this space. I already watch some of my FTA content via their apps, and I am no longer really seeing the benefit of keeping the satellite. Most of the content stored on my IQ can be called up via On-Demand, and I don't really watch it repeatedly enough to warrant keeping it./ The main drawback will be the loss of scheduled recordings and series links, especially with content such as AFL36 and AFL Tonight, which I watch daily via series link. But is it worth paying an extra $50 a month for? I doubt it. With that money, I could increase my data limits and speeds, and get the Amazon Prime subscription.
• The difference between the satellite service and the OTT service can be seen here: https://www.foxtel.com.au/now/shop.html

So in summary, my satellite subscription is on the way out. I paid for another month recently, so I will get closer to the billing date and then cancel the service, or suspend it.

To be honest, my satellite subscription has been great for a very long time, but also very expensive. Unless Foxtel can supply skinny bundles, or significantly reduce the cost of a subscription, I can't see a reason to keep it.

Another aspect that may ultimately prevent me from completely abandoning the satellite is the live sport aspect. If the OTT app can't delive reliable high-fidelity sport with no or little latency, then I would have to revisit the satellite service. But I don't think that without completely abandoning it first and truly experiencing the consumption of sport via OTT (and a return to FTA sport) that I'll get an understanding of how important hi-fidelity and no latency sport is, and if I can live without it, and if I can get speeds and performance out of an OTT set up to keep me happy as a sports (particualrly AFL) consumer.

Now is the right time to do this. AFL finals will soon be here, so all games will be on FTA anyway. I can experiment with the setup I have to get optimal viewing, knowing that if I can't I can fall back on the FTA coverage for the rest of the season. Then in the off season I can spend more time experimenting with TV settings and data plans, albeit on other sports, or even decide to go back to the satellite service.

Participant Observations 9/8/17 - Confirmed! People don't like a reduced screen size on tablets

I was watching footy with a mate recently, and he said how disappointing it was to watch the AFL on a tablet now through the AFL Live app, because the size of the screen had been reduced. I mentioned this in a previous post, and I thought that it was a new change under the new rights agreement, but this confirms it. His response was negative to say the least...

SMH article - CrownBet 'accidentally' breaches AFL's $2.5b rights deal

This article from the Sydney Morning Herald has a lot going on from my perspective.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/crownbet-accidentally-breaches-afls-25b-rights-deal-20170729-gxli8h.html

CrownBet accidentally breaches AFL's $2.5b rights deal

Basically, it outlines how people using a betting application could get virtually free access to AFL games on televisions, that should have been hidden behind paywalls.

This situation is interesting to me for many reasons:

• It demonstrates the overlap of sport, gambling, television, new media, technology, and users.
• It demonstrates an inability of the AFL to govern the terms of it's own licence agreement.
• It demonstrates Telstra's inability to monitor the way it's product was being used.
• It demonstrates how users are always alert to opportunities to circumvent the walled gardens
• It demonstrates the evolving and fluid nature of technology, especially mirroring technology that can allow content that is supposed to be limited to mobile devices can become content that can be consumed on a television.
• It demonstrates the way that live sport has far greater appeal in being consumed in this way (i.e., that the prefered viewing expeirence of the sport fan is on large screen)
• It demonstrates the insidious and pervasive relationship between gambling and sport, and the way that sport welcomes in gambling.
• It demonstrates in some way the produser or informal media economy, because people were circulating this knowledge on forums for 4 months before Telstra was alerted to it.
• It demonstrates the power of news media, because it was only after an inquiry from a newspaper that Telstra became aware of the problem and shut the service down.

I'm also cyncical of the headline that CrownBet 'accidentally' breached the terms of the deal. Who's to say CrownBet didn't know about this and knowingly did nothing to act on it, as it would have attracted customers they could pitch their marketing to. 

This also relates to my own research, as it demonstrates another way, outside of using VPN's or pirate websites, that people can circumvent the measures put in place to try and protect the exclusivity of content.