Participant Observations 15/8/18 - 4K 4 Real? Not for me...

Foxtel have announced that they're launching 4K resolution ahead of the cricket season, for which they just secured the rights for:

https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/foxtel-launched-4k-channel-in-preparation-for-cricket-20180814-p4zxgg.html

Obviously, at first I was pretty excited about this, as it meant I might be able to watch the cricket this summer in glorious 4K resolution. That was until you see some of the finer print:

• 4K is only available to satellite subscribers, not internet subscribers (i.e., Foxtel Now).
• 4K resolution is only available on one channel, a specialized channel that will carry some cricket, movies, documentaries and concerts.
• Subscribers will have to upgrade to the iQ4 set-top-unit to get the 4K channel.
• The 4K channel is only available for free to existing subscribers with either the sports or HD package. If you are not a sports or HD subscriber, you have to pay extra.
• The 4K channel will be launched to internet platforms later, but it wasn't announced when, and "the pickings are very thin and... never in live sport and live material."
• Internet users will likely need at least 15Mbps to get 4K resolution when it is available, and more likely to need 25Mbps.

So, it doesn't look like I'll be getting 4K sport anytime soon. However, here are some other takeaway points:

• It suggests that Foxtel believe sport in a higher resolution matters for fans. This is something that the research in this area has also born out.
• It is further evidence of how central sport is to the business model of pay television.
• it's evidence how sport is used as a testing ground for new technologies, both at the game and at the point of consumption. The same thing happened with 3D television and College basketball in the US.
• It suggests that Foxtel still see their satellite service as their core business, by trying to attract and retain customers there. If not, why wouldn't they offer the 4K service over the internet? I have the requisite internet speeds television specifications, and have watched 4K content on Netflix before.

In part, this staggers me, because, as can be seen in some of my previous posts, clearly consumers are heading online to get their content.

Why Foxtel wouldn't use the 4K carrot as a way to attract consumers to their internet platforms seems in some ways to be counter-intuitive. Offering 4K would put them at least on par, if not above, Netflix and Stan, who also offer 4K. The point of difference for Foxtel would have been they would be the only platform to offer 4K sport via an OTT platform.

Accordingly, it might turn out that Channel 9/Fairfax are the first to do this, given that Channel 9 has the tennis rights and have just merged with Fairfax, who part own Stan, a 4K-ready platform who are eager to make inroads on Netflix's dominance of the OTT market.

Perhaps technical issues prevented them from doing this - understandably, OTT providers would by apprehensive after seeing the backlash from what happened with Optus during the world cup. And given the 4K signal requires such large download speeds, it potentially wouldn't take too much of an increase in demand from consumers for the service to be compromised, given the unknown ability of the NBN to deliver the content in 4K.

Accordingly, I think it will be a few years before Foxtel are game enough to deliver 4K content online, and I think another OTT platform will be the first to do it with live sport in Australia.