Participant Observations 9/6/18 - Almost a year on, do I miss the Fox Box?

I was watching Fox Sports the other day (of course) and they played a promo about the iQ3 box. It made me think about whether or not I really miss it anymore.

Definitely there are functions that I miss having, especially the ability to series link content. I've been forced to watch a lot more content as it goes to air (linear), or play content through my gamin PC, where I can rewind the content up to 30 minutes.

There were less hassles with the iQ box compared to using Foxtel Now, like the one I outlined in my last post, with the app stalling, etc. There is also a bad time delay compared to the satellite service that I'll talk about more in a minute.

And the user-interface and functionality of the Foxtel Now app is still very substandard compared to other similar apps like the FTA apps and the Netflix app. The app crashes, is slow to launch, plays sound even when off, is slow when switching between live and on-demand content, doesn't have some of the same basic functions as the Netflix app, and is definitely 'clunky'.

Foxtel now also probably doesn't have quite the same level of fidelity as the satellite service, although I have worked hard to get this to a level where the difference is negligible, especially if I watch without my glasses on!

But overall, I don't miss the Foxtel iQ box.

Using the iPad as the remote is relatively easy. I don't miss the extra channels I had with the satellite service. I'm still watching predominantly sport, and I should get the new all-cricket channel Foxtel will launch. I'm paying enough for other apps, such as Amazon Prime, and for faster internet, to justify the savings I made changing over to the OTT service. In fact, if anything, because I'm using the Foxtel OTT service, I basically watch all my content that way now as well because I have all the FTA and other OTT apps on my iPad, which is great.

The one big downside that I alluded to earlier is lagging, and this is a real problem when watching sport. For example, if I'm watching the Swans play, and my mate Benny Douglas is also watching at the same time at his place but on free-to-air, he will text me about a highlight that has happened in the game before I've had a chance to watch it. So the lag by watching the game on the OTT app and then chromecasting it to the TV I estimate is nearly 60 seconds. This clearly devalues the experience of watching live sport - I can tell when my phone alerts me to a message, that there is a highlight (or a lowlight) about to happen.

But overall, I still love this service. Obviously I think some parts of the app can be improved, but switching to OTT has not significantly changed my ability to fulfill my experience as an AFL fan.