Interesting development that Telstra is now offering TV streaming via your Next G 3G capable mobile. Not sure what the international status is of similar offerings, however in true Telstra style this is most likely catching up with the rest of the world. Not to mention the pricing structure is what we have come to expect from our biggest Telco.

We have discussed often on the show and debated the usefulness of TV for your mobile, I still maintain the view that the uptake will be slow if at all. Not only that I really think that most Australian customers will not even bother, they just won’t see the point.

That said there will be a few that do use the service. But in typical style of this type of thing and the restrictive broadcasting market we have in Australia, the offerings are going to be made up of shows with average appeal. There are the usual popular shows such as The Chasers War on Everything that are included (You have to check out the complaints page). But then these shows are available as video podcasts on iTunes for free. I would think that the type of shows you can expect will be similar to what is offered on iTunes. It has been reported that there will be some shows offered as “catch-up” shows that will be made available the day after being shown on free to air.

Now the absolute kicker… as you might expect it ain’t free. “Clips” will be from 50 cents (there is no definition of a “clip” supplied, I would be thinking minutes worth at most). There are package deals offered for “clips”. Not sure what the value in that is, it would be like watching a series of trailers! Next are whole episodes, $4.95 per episode for 3 to 7 days access. Or $9.95 per month for 4 episodes of a TV series. Plus the * and the ^ refer to extra conditions that will cost you more. Full pricing including browsing can be found on their website.

So Telstra are asking me to pay for a show that was free to air to be able to watch it on my mobile phone. I could more than likely get that same show for nothing on iTunes and watch it on my iPod. Or I could obtain the same thing via other means, for free. Not only that the offerings sound like like very “retro” shows that I would not be interested in anyway. Or cut down content that is not the whole show. Plus I have to pay the mobile plan to give me access to the content, which is a huge rip off! Great sign me up! Not.

That said, Telstra are reported to be saying that an ad supported model might be a available if the subscriber base is there. Right! First you have to have a service that people want to subscribe to! Ugh, they just don’t get it.

This not only brings out a problem with mobile phones but also iTunes. We don’t have TV in iTunes in Australia. We can’t sign up in iTunes for a whole season of squat. We do have some very forward thinking Government owned broadcasters such as the Australian Broadcasting Commission that are offering great video podcast versions of their shows. The commercial stuff, just forget it. Not sure when this situation will change, if at all. We did hear a rumor that TV was coming to iTunes for us Aussies but we shall see.

I might be being a bit harsh on Telstra but while they may believe they are offering a great service that is open and accessible; it just doesn’t go far enough to opening up access and true choice. Although I do appreciate that it costs money to deliver content like video. But the same goes for iTunes. We want TV on iTunes in Australia! Not only that the government needs to wake up to itself and take a long hard look at broadcasting rules in Australia. Otherwise we as a country are going to be well and truly left behind as well as paying through the nose for mediocre content.

Call me when the offerings get better and the price is significantly less, Oh and make it my landline; I don’t have mobile coverage 10 minutes out of town.

Thanks Eric for this bit of Mobile News via Blue Dot

Dave

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 21st, 2007 at 11:57 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.