Participant Observations 12/12/17 - Returning the Fox Box

I just had a really funny conversation with the woman at my local newsagent. I'll explain how it came about:

So I got an email from Foxtel this week, saying the voluntary account suspension of my satellite service was about to end, and that they would start to charge me for it again.

Having been with the Foxtel OTT service now for about the same length of time, and not particularly unhappy with what I'm getting, I decided that I would terminate the satellite service. So I called them up, and cancelled the service, but not before they again tried to pitch to me some deals to stay with them. Iit was too late for that.

So they sent me an email with details about how to return the Fox Box. I printed off the label that came attached in the email, packaged up my Fox Box, and walked it up the road to the designated dispatch point - my local newsagent. (For those who didn't know, getting a Foxtel Subscription does not buy you the Box - you effectively only rent it during your subscription)

I walked into the newsagent, and said, "I understand I can drop this off here to be returned to Foxtel?"

"Yeah, that's right," she said. She then took the package out to some back room. On her way back to the counter, a thought flashed through my mind.

I asked, "Do you get many of these dropped off here?"

She looked at me in a knowing kind of way, and said, "Yeah, we get heaps. Probably 6 to 7 a week, ever since Netflix and all them other ones came along."

I said something like, "Fair dinkum. They must get a lot of churn I reckon."

She countered with, "Yeah, they have to do something about their pricing or something to stop it."

It was an informal yet fascinating validation that the traditional Foxtel business model is in crisis. It in turn led me to two other thoughts:

1) A comment one research participant said in an interview, where they said Foxtel's business model used to be about just bombarding people with as many content as possible, literally 100's and 100's of channels. It probably also reflects an ideology of "Content is King", which I think may no longer be the case. It's been said to me more recently that "User experience is now King." Which now seems more apt.

2) It also reminded me of the 5 weeks I worked as a telemarketer for Austar (which became Foxtel) waaaaay back in 2002. One of the selling points of our pitch, we were told, was to talk about the number of channels we had, year round.

But the conversation with the newsagent lady was an informal validation of the changing media landscape. Sometimes I fucking love my research and where it leads me.

Participant Observations 10/12/17 - Fan Studies Network Conference

The Fan Studies Conference in Wollongong was a really interesting and reward experience. Some takeaways:

• I felt that the paper presentation went well. I tried to get it to follow a logical progression, and integrate the key concepts of the Produser and the Informal Media Economy clearly.
• Because Fan Studies is not an area that I'm too familiar with, it forced me to explain some concepts that I probably take for granted, such as what OTT and anti-siphoning is, which is I think a good grounding experience.
• Rehearsing for presentations is always helpful. It forced me to really tighten up the literature review, and it allowed me to get my presentation down to 20 minutes, almost exactly.
• Rehearsing also made me change the order of the material so that it made the logic easier to follow. After the intro and literature review, I looked at regulation, which led into the AFL Case study, and the outcomes of Illegal vs Legal consumption, then the introduction of key concepts, which then led to a look at AFL Produser consumption practices, and finally some conclusions.
• The conference also made me restate why an Interdisciplinary approach to study is important - most people had little to no consideration of industry at the conference, and I felt that a real strength of my presentation was that it did involve direct data from an industry source.
• I think the presentation was well accepted. There was some good comments posted on social media, and most of the comments seemed to stem from Smith's observation that sports fans experience the same neurological patterns as those people that are undergoing a deep religious experience. This shouldn't be too surprising I guess.

But otherwise the conference was ok. It was only small with probably 30-40 delegates there, but was well run.

It was also probably a bit like going to ComicCon! most of the presentations focus on particular fan communities, especially around TV shows or Films and so on. But it was compelling nonetheless. 

The two keynotes were also helpful I think in terms of understanding new ways to look at Fandom, that moves away from a high culture-low culture binary to more of a quadrant pattern. I'm not sure if this could be applied to sports fandom and AFL fandom, but it might be something worth considering.

And met some interesting people as well, which is always nice!

Now, I need to see if I can get the paper written up and published somewhere!

Participant Observations 10/12/17 - New PC

About a week ago, I (finally) took possession of my $1200 gaming PC. Here are some early thoughts on it:

• I fucking love it. I play games on it without fear of the system crashing. It's quiet, looks good, and has been a breeze to use.
• Unfortunately, using Foxtel through the windows browser is not as good as using Foxtel through the chromecast app. The image is more pixellated, and not as bright as through the chromecast. This surprised me because I always saw chromecast as an inferior product, in terms of latency and instability of the Foxtel app. I think this must have something to do with the graphics card or operating power of the PC, because the PC runs computer graphics as smooth as silk, but there may be a difference between computer graphics and streaming graphics.
• I'm super keen to play some online gaming or multiplayer gaming with it. My internet is fast enough, but I'm not yet confident enough to go into the online space.
• I'm having to guard against buying too many games too quickly. They are expensive, and sometimes not as good as anticipated.
• I'm also cognisant of not using up all my time on there, when I should be doing uni work or chores or whatever. 
• My favourite games so far: The Golf Club and NBA 2K16, both of which my old system would crash if it were trying to run it. I really want to build my own golf course, but I'm also aware that this will chew up heaps of time, which I need to be aware of.
• Games I want to get: AFL Evolution (which is expensive - $65), and perhaps some other first-person shooters/adventure games, like one of the GTA games.
• The games look FUCKING SPECTACULAR on my television.
• I have the free AFL Evolution Demo, but it only lets you play around with some list management features, which are nice, but really you want that gameplay action!! Actually, fuck it, I'm going to get it tonight...
• You become more aware of the whole 'microtransaction' process, and how fucked it is. I tweeted this article about it the other day: https://www.theringer.com/features/2017/12/2/16725196/reddit-fighting-microtransaction-exploitation-in-video-games For example, most of the golf courses on the Golf Club are locked and only open to 'platinum' or 'premium' members.

Here's what she looks like:

And some screenshots of my favourite games:

Which can also be found on my Instagram account:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcMvWqrnc2X/?taken-by=ed_reddin

So maybe I need to come up with a name for it!!

Participant Observations 10/12/17 - Foxtel Survey

So I recently recieved an email from Foxtel, asking me to participate in a survey. I've grabbed screenshots below:

I completed the survey, and also checked all three boxes in the last quest. The reason I'd do this is because hopefully I can:

1) Give Foxtel feedback about their OTT app, and how to improve it, because I still think this app is underdeveloped in an attempt to discourage customers from becoming pure OTT consumers (i.e., they try to 'encourage' people to stay on a satellite plan because of the poor user experience with the app).

2) It would help me to maybe see the values and priorities for Foxtel from the types of questions they would ask me.

I also try to identify as an early adopter/influencer in this space, so I think my answers might be of some relevance.

However, it depends if I'm seen by them as a 'core' customer or not (i.e., I'm not a family with a huge amount of disposable income, or whatever it is that Foxtel see their core customer profile as being). So yes, ultimately I'm hoping Foxtel will add me to their survey group.

Particiapnt Observations 22/11/17 - Free TV app is alright

So, now that I stream most of my content, I've become adept at getting my free to air content that way as well.

What completely fucking surprised me, is that 7 Plus do not allow you to Chromecast... and yet if you go to the Free TV app, you can chromecast the same fucking channel from their app.

What fucking bullshit.

Channel 7 won't let you chromecast from their app, but the same channel, through the Free TV app, does chromecast.

What the fuck.

I cannot explain that. Either Channel 7 aren't aware of it, or their not concerned about people finding it out, or the numbers aren't big enough, or they're effectively conceding some of the market to a non-commercial partner. They may as well be giving their signal to the ABC - whose chromecast signal is FUCKING CRAP by the way...

I have no idea why the ABC steam is SO BAD. It is really really bad.

I've acknowledged before that Chomecast isn't perfect, but wholly fuck, if Foxtel and Netflix can deliver HD over Chromecast, whey the fuck can't ABC. Disappointing.

Participant Observations 22/11/17 - Internet Latest

So it looks like the NBN internet saga has come to an end.

After much dialogue with my NBN provider (Internode), who, by the way, were actually very amenable on the phone and in all conversations, I have a new modem, and have upgraded to a 25 down/5 up plan. So how did this all happen???

When I started experiencing poor streamlining, I contacted internode. We ran some tests, and even though they said they would trial me on a 25-5 plan, I was still experiencing issues. Testing showed I was still getting about 10-5 and picture pixellation.

An NBN technician came out. He said the modem was getting 25-5. So this was reported back to internode. It was assessed that the problem must be with the modem. My modem was under warranty, so a new modem was sent out - free of charge.

The new modem was tested. Still only getting 10-5. More phone calls with interode. It turns out that, despite saying I was on a 25-5 trial, they had coded my modem to only deliver 12-5. And I was experiencing the same issues with the new modem, which they assured me was capable of running 100-25. At one point, one of the Internode techs conceded that to run Foxtel with no latency or pixellation, you need about 1.5 upload speed - below what I had.

But even the techs at internode assured me (and sounded surprised) that my line was capable of running speeds well above what I was getting (this in and of itself indicates how bad the NBN is - even the people that sell it realise there is latency issues with the delivery, and that services may not always be delivered as advertised - more on this shortly...)

So after some more conversations, I effectively conceded that in order to get stable, HD streaming images for sport content that I want, that I needed to upgrade - or at least trial it and see if that would fix the problem. After all, Internode had effectively given me a new, better modem for free.

This is decided even though it would cost me $80 a month with the new plan (+$10 change over fee), again pushing me further back to the price I was at when I cut the cable.

However...

I am pleased to say that, over the last two days since the new plan came into effect, the internet signal has been stable, and constant HD with less latency and virtually no pixerllation. So is all good??

Well, I am still below where I was paying for satellite. It needs to be remembered that, even when I had satellite, I was still paying for NBN, at about $60 a month. And with no more satellite, I am still probably about $50 in front per month, even though I paying more for NBN.

So all in all, it was a fucking headache, but I have an upgraded modem for free, I'm pulling down as much data as I can handle, and the quality is about as good as I could hope for.

Also, as alluded to before, Internode techs on the phone are very deliberate in letting people know that they may not be able to deliver the speeds people expect - another indictment on the qaulity of the fucking Internet we have in this country - they should be pushing their speeds - not making people wary of getting their hopes up!!

Having said that, despite my best efforts, it should also be realised that Foxtel Now, no matter what speed internet I have state on their website, that linear TV is delivered at a maximum of 720HD, while on-demand shows will be in 1080HD.

As an avid sport watcher, you do notice the difference between 720 and 1080. It's not ideal. But I have HD delivered via internet, cheaper than satellite. This is my choice. This is incumbent on the government to also improve NBN.

I would hate to have been an elderly person, or someone who didn't usually speak English to have to go through all this. I fucking love my sport.

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UPDATE: It's now about a week later, and the quality of the picture has been much better, with effectively no picture degradation at all. More about this in a future post (because Internode also tried to ring me about something, not sure what...)

Participant Observations 10/11/17 - Chromecast is a lesser viewing experience

Some observations about streaming to Chromecast over the last few months:

It's unfortunately a lesser product. I ran some tests with it, streaming sport to Foxtel Now on my laptop and to the Chromecast via the app on my tablet at the same time, and observed:

• Latency: The Chromecast runs about 15 seconds behind the online portal.
• Instability: This may be the fault of the app, but I have had the signal drop out once or twice going to the Chromecast, especially when streaming NBA
• More vulnerable: The signal to the Chromecast is a lot more likely to pixelate or drop off if I start running other screens and apps.

Granted, I ask a lot of my Chromecast - I stream most, if not all, of my content through it, and it's not the latest model. i expect the highest quality in terms of fidelity, and it relies on a strong WiFi signal.

And overall, in the longer run, I don't think the Chromecast is the optimal way to watch content, especially sports content. It's been a good way for me to get OTT content onto my television, and it's basically forced me into realising that my internet plan was probably inadequate for what I need, but I think it is soon to become obsolete.

Players in the OTT space are working on ways to get content to consumers directly - either through building apps into software (i.e., my smart TV came with Netflix and YouTube installed), or making them increasingly available in app marketplaces, or by building specific devices to replace it (i.e., the Foxtel Now STU).

There will always be a place for it, especially for those apps that haven't been able to achieve one of the other solutions, and I may need to buy a newer model that can handle better speeds and deliver a better picture, but ultimately it is a lesser way to get content via the internet.