Telstra TV Teams Up With Roku, Goes 4K, Adds Free To Air

The brand, shiny new powered-by-Roku Telstra TV is here (well, on October 31, anyway) – combining subscription TV and on-demand streaming with free-to-air, which we all definitely still watch.

Telstra is boasting the upgraded device (which will cost $192 outright or with the $99 bundle like it’s predecessor), will be the country’s very first live TV, catch-up and on-demand search function.

ABC iView, SBS On Demand, +7, 9NOW, Tenplay, Foxtel Now, BigPond Movies, Netflix, Stan and Hayu are on the menu, along with every FTA station.

So what’s the main differences between the new Telstra TV and the old one?

There’s the new Free to Air tuner, the maxiumum screen resolution has jumped from 1080p HD to 2160p 4K UHD with HDR support, so there’s now High Efficiency Video Coding Support and the processor got an upgrade, too – from a Dual Core ARM to a Quad Core MStar.

The DRAM is up from 512MB to 2GB and the storage has been expanded from Storage 256MB (plus microSD) to 512MB (plus microSD).

And yeah – although we like to joke – Telstra reckons the average Aussie watches about 70 hours of free to air telly, with 83 per cent of us still tuning in every week.

So the whole idea is to switch between FTA, Pay TV and streaming services from the one central location. You’ll get recommendations for new content all in the one place, too – without having to check each individual app. The mobile app lets you search and save as well as use your phone as a remote control.

Telstra CEO Andrew Penn calls Telstra TV “a perfect example” of how Telstra builds software and service layers on top of its networks “to provide new value and differentiated experiences for our customers”.

Executive Director of Media, Michele Garra says this is “just the beginning” with, voice activation, personalised recommendations and more content partners planned for the future.

Garra says the partnership with Roku is what made this all possible.

“Roku and Telstra have worked together to custom build the device and bring this brilliant experience to Australia.”

Have Telstra got it right? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

You can find out more here.


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