At first, I thought the charges might have been incurred when I used the AFL Live Pass in New Zealand to watch the Swans play Geelong. But I looked at the terms and conditions attached to the AFL Live Pass, and the only stipulation was that the AFL Live Pass couldn't be used overseas... So either NZ doesn't count as 'overseas' or this term and condition isn't enforced.
What followed was a protracted back-and-forth with Telstra. I also lodged a claim for incorrect charges with my bank to see if I could get the charges refunded.
Anyways, while I was waiting for Telstra to get back to me - and I should say that I thought their customer service was slightly better than I thought it would be, other than the fact that their call-centre operators always spoke in sometimes barely legible, and that as soon as 9pm rolled around, they completely shut down their customer service, despite the chat service supposedly being 24x7 - I found out that the $89.99 was billed to me from an old subscription.
So AFL Live Pass works like this. There are effectively three points where you can subscribe: 1) Through the AFL website, 2) Through the app, and 3) Through the marketplace of your phone (i.e., the iPhone App Store, or Google Play etc). Now, Telstra Mobile customers can get the subscription for free, but ONLY if they subscribe through the app on their phone (i.e., option 2 above).
I initially had a recurring AFL Live Pass subscription through the AFL website (i.e., option 1 above), which I paid for when I started the research, back in 2016. Then, when I became a Telstra Mobile customer at the start of this year - specifically for the purpose of getting AFL Live Pass for free - I signed into the subscription for AFL Live Pass on my new phone (i.e., option 2 above). Inadvertently, I believed that this 'new' subscription would supersede my old subscription. However, this doesn't automatically happen, and I didn't realise I had to manually unsubscribe from my old subscription in order to avoid the recurring charges. Hence the confusion when my 'old' subscription automatically renewed.
However, this does highlight a point made during one of my research interviews - that the duplicate and multiple subscriptions that are required to access content such as sports rights could motivate consumers toward pirate behaviour. While it didn't happen in this instance, it was incredibly frustrating, and I can easily see how such an outcome could occur.
So what happened? After using some colourful language to tell the Telstra case manager how disappointed I was, they said they would credit my phone account with $89.99. I also cancelled the claim for incorrect charges with the bank. So no refund, but still a better outcome than nothing. I've also deleted my duplicate account - at least I think I have. It does also raise another point about how obfuscating the how multiple subscriptions is, and how deliberately misleading it feels. Clearly this should be cleaned up, otherwise it leaves you with the impression (especially for cynics like me) that this is a deliberate ploy to catch unsuspecting consumers such as myself in the unnecessarily complicated web of subscriptions.
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The 3MT shit-show
On Tuesday this week I participated in the Three-Minute Thesis competition for our faculty. What a fucking catastrophe. I had rehearsed pretty consistently for about three days leading up to it, and had spend about twice that long preparing the script. So I had a pretty solid explanation of my research, a good slide, and was reasonably confident going in...
Then about halfway through the presentation, I forget my lines...
So, I managed to make it to the end, but of course, because I had a big delay in the middle, I ran out of time to finish all the points of the script. So I found the exercise humiliating and it completely shattered my confidence.
To make matters worse, I performed my presentation without any notes. Being first in the schedule meant that I didn't get to see anyone else present before me, and many of the other presenters had notes... So if I had see other students going before me with notes, I might have taken my own notes up with me, and had something to refer to when I forgot my lines. But I was so fucking embarrassed that as soon as the heats were over, I fled - I still have no idea who won. And to be honest, I'm not sure if I even fucking care.
At the end of the day, the only reason I undertook the whole fucking exercise was to have something to put on my progress report, but overall it took more time and effort than what I think was worth it. Bullshit.
Below is the script and the slide I used:
Think about some of the most iconic and controversial moments on Australian TV in the last 20 years: John Aloisi puts us into the World Cup. Cathy Freeman wins gold. Adam Goodes getting booed by AFL crowds.
Almost more than anything else sport reflects
our culture and binds us together socially.
So imagine trying to have
conversations about what these events mean culturally, if only 30% of us could
see it.
Or imagine trying to enjoy these
events socially with friends and family, if you could only watch it on a phone.
This is what I am researching – what
are the tensions inside the culture industry of sport on television, and what
are the implications for our culture because of those tensions?
Because you see, in an era when
audiences are fragmenting, sport rights are an especially hot property.
Live sport draws large audiences together
who watch simultaneously, and who can’t avoid the advertising in it.
This drives profits for broadcasters.
Did you know that for the last four
years in a row, the highest rating TV show has been the AFL Grand Final? Or
that on AFL Grand Final day, more than 90% of televisions switched on in
Australia are tuned into the game?
So for sports like the AFL, it’s a
sellers’ market.
And if left to market forces, sports will
sell their rights to the highest bidder.
But nowadays, the highest bidder might
be a telecommunications company or social media platform or a search engine,
who deliver sport online, often on mobile devices.
As demonstrated by Optus during the
World Cup, new broadcasters may not be equipped to deliver sport reliably.
Alternatively, if really important
sport goes behind a paywall, people can be driven to piracy.
You might remember the guy who got into
trouble with Foxtel, for pointing his phone at a pay-per-view broadcast of a boxing
match and streaming it onto Facebook.
And because it takes funds away from
people who produce content, piracy isn’t good for broadcasters, or the sports,
or the people who just want to enjoy their sport.
You might say, “Shouldn’t the
government to step in, and make the really important sport available to
everyone?”
And you’d be right, except the
regulation that’s supposed to do that is so outdated as to effectively be obsolete.
So, by using the AFL as a case study,
and by interviewing executives from TV, sport, and the government, I am investigating
these issues, many of which are uniquely Australian.
My findings will inform investment and
policy decisions, in order to defend the richness of our culture.
Because as a cultural, socially
bonding experience, no one wants to watch footy on their phone.
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