Telstra TV reboots streaming push

Telstra’s Jo Pollard has stressed the telco’s strong relationship with Foxtel, despite its decision to trim its stake in it.

Telstra’s group executive media and chief marketing officer Joe Pollard. Picture: Hollie Adams

Telstra media chief Jo Pollard has stressed the telco’s strong relationship with Foxtel, despite its decision to trim its stake in the pay-TV operator, as the streaming revolution takes hold in Australia.

Speaking to The Australian as the telco released the latest version of its Telstra TV product yesterday, Ms Pollard said the relationship with Foxtel was still an important part of Telstra’s media offering and would get top billing on Telstra TV marketing.

“Nothing has changed for us with regards to Foxtel as far as strategy is concerned,” she said.

“Foxtel Now is available on the Telstra TV platform and we continue to bundle the Foxtel broadcast offering.”

Earlier this year, Telstra announced plans to cut its 50 per cent stake in Foxtel as part of the merger between the pay-TV operator and News Corporation’s sports network Fox Sports.

Under the merger plans, which could be completed in the first half of 2018, News Corp (publisher of The Australian) will have a 65 per cent stake in the new company, and Telstra 35 per cent. The move will be a precursor to the combined entity to be listed on the market.

The deal is pending regulatory approval and Ms Pollard said that the end outcome was a net positive for Telstra. “When you look at the combined entity we will still have a significant stake in a bigger content company and you actually end up with a much more simplified business,” she said.

“The second thing, which is still pending approval, is that when it comes to the IP and mobile portions of the new company, we will have an exclusive agency relationship in the new deal.”

Telstra says the release comes at a time Australian viewing habits are at a tipping point with viewers fixated on streaming.

The so-called “Netflix effect” has also seen sports content move to mobile devices and telcos like Telstra aggregating all on-demand offering into one device.

Telstra TV2 offers more up-to-date features, with a free-to-air TV tuner, 4K resolution streaming media with high dynamic range and a universal search feature.

Apart from free-to-air TV, there are the five standard catch-up services: ABC iView, SBS On Demand, +7, 9NOW and Tenplay. The streaming services include Netflix, BigPond Movies, Stan, Foxtel Now and reality TV streaming service Hayu. It offers access to more than 150 reality TV shows and customers can also access other apps such as YouTube, Roku Media Player and TED video podcasts.

Ms Pollard said poor broadband speeds shouldn’t be an issue for consumers, with Telstra using HEVC (high efficiency video coding) to encode media and save bandwidth.

“The HEVC technology enables 30 per cent less data consumption as the content flows through the device, 80 per cent of our BigPond movie catalogue is HEVC compatible and we are working with all of the other content providers to push them into that technology.”

Telstra TV2 will be available as part of the telco’s value bundle for $99, or outright for $192 or $8 per month.

Additional reporting: Chris Griiffith