Saturday, April 20, 2019

Participant Observations 20/4/19 - The End is Nigh for Foxtel Now

Well, for me at least...

It's often been rumoured that Foxtel are going to one day cancel the Foxtel Now service, instead offering a low-price version of Kayo but for drama, but I've made the decision to this year cut off my Foxtel subscription anyway.

The reason is to run a bit of an experiment, and to see what it's like, as a hardcore AFL fan, to try and access AFL games without it. These are the types of questions I'll be looking to answer:

  1. How motivated will I become to search and use pirate streams of games that are not shown on free-to-air
  2. Will consuming the free-to-air coverage of the game change my expectations and experience of watching AFL? If so, how?
  3. How will my fandom be enabled via VPN use? And how will this way of watching games change my experience of watching AFL and my AFL fandom?

I anticipate switching the Foxtel Now subscription off after round 12. This is because the AFL/Fox Sports usually introduce their half-year option for Watch AFL, the overseas portal for watching AFL games that I can access via VPN. This half-year option is not only cheaper than a full year option, but it also doesn't auto-renew like the other forms of Watch AFL subscription.

Another benefit with switching off in about 7 weeks time is that it will allow me to finish watching Game of Thrones on Foxtel Now! And hopefully Veep as well.

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