Watching live TV on your mobile phone sounds appealing, but Telstra’s Mobile FOXTEL option has never been particularly cheap. From July 27 that pain will ease a little with a simpler pack lineup and more live channels, but options for casual users are disappearing.
Right now, there are four options for using Mobile FOXTEL:
- a daypass with a basic 11-channel range for $4;
- a combo of any two channel packs (from a range of news, sport, entertainment, music and kids) for a month for $12;
- access to all five channel packs for a week for $4.95;
- access to all five channel packs for a month for $18;
The new options are simpler, but only available as one-month deals:
- Value Pack: 16 channels for $8 per month;
- Ultimate Pack: All 30 Mobile FOXTEL channels for $15 per month.
- Ultimate Pack plus Sport: All 30 Mobile FOXTEL channels plus five sports channels (AFL Footy TV, NRL League TV, BigPond Sport, Sports Play by FOX Sports* and Euro Sport) for $20 per month.
Here’s the channel lineups across those packages. Channels marked with an asterisk are transmitted live; the others loop a selection of content, which Telstra says is being extended in the new bundles to minimise repetition.
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Value Pack: SKY NEWS NATIONAL*, SKY NEWS Business*, BBC World News*, CNN*, FOX SPORTS News*, Cartoon Network*, National Geographic Channel*, The Weather Channel*, MTV, Nickelodeon, TV1, Discovery Channel Mobile, Channel [V], MAX, ABC1 and SBS1
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Ultimate Pack: Value Pack channels plus Eurosportnews*, Disney Channel*, Disney Junior*, Nick Jr., SCI FI, E!, FOX8, The Comedy Channel, [V] HITS, Nat Geo Adventure*, Arena, The LifeStyle Channel, LifeStyle YOU, and the Crime and Investigation Network.[/right]
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You can only access the service if you have a Telstra mobile, either through a browser or the dedicate iOS app. On the upside, data for accessing the streams doesn’t come out of your existing allocation.
That pricing makes it cheaper than any standalone FOXTEL option, including the XBOX variant, but the channel options are somewhat more limited. For parents, it’s also a more expensive choice: where previously you could choose a kids channel plus one other for $12, now you need the ultimate pack to get the full range of kids’ channels.
Are you tempted by the new price points? Prefer to download TV to your mobile device? Tell us in the comments.
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