19 channels deleted from Foxtel Play lineup but broadcaster won’t say why
Pay television operator Foxtel is to radically reduce the amount of content available on its streaming service Foxtel Play.
Foxtel Play will see 19 channels removed from its offering from June 5.
The move emerged through an announcement on Foxtel’s community page.
Foxtel Play is Foxtel’s entry-level offering aimed at customers who do not want to subscribe to the full Foxtel service including the IQ box.
The development comes a few weeks after reports that Foxtel was set to rebrand Play as Foxtel Now.
As of June 5, Foxtel Play will no longer offer BoxSets, 13th Street, Binge, Syfy, Discovery Science, Animal Planet, Lifestyle You, Style, World Movies, CNN, Smooth, BBC World News, CNBC, Max, CMC, Eurosport News, Foxtel Arts, MTV Music and MTV Dance.
Community manager, Nik Kingsman wrote: “We wanted to let you know that we’re making some changes to the live services on Foxtel Play from Monday 5 June 2017.
“Sadly, we’ll be saying goodbye to some services from Foxtel Play but the good news is, they’ll still be available through our broadcast service,” he wrote.
How Foxtel revealed the changes to customers
According to Foxtel Play’s updated pricing and packing, from June 5, all shows on the channels will be unavailable both as they are broadcast and on demand.
Foxtel’s push into the streaming video world has been a bumpy ride so far. Its joint venture with Seven, Presto, was closed after just a few months after costing the company $21m. Customers were then moved over to Foxtel Play.
Community users commenting on the Foxtel announcement speculated that the changes could either be because of those loss of rights to rival streaming services such as Stan and Netflix, or an attempt to drive customers from the cheaper Foxtel Play to a full Foxtel subscription. Foxtel community managers to did not respond to further questions on the post.
A spokesperson for Foxtel told Mumbrella: “Periodically we make changes to our proposition in our push to give customers the content they want, delivered how they want to watch it. Most of the content from the broadcast channels is still available on demand, which is how people are increasingly using Foxtel Play.
“In December, we lowered the entry point for Foxtel Play to $10 per month, making Foxtel more accessible than ever. Foxtel Play customers will continue to enjoy access to the best choice of blockbuster movies, new shows and complete seasons, including every new HBO drama and Foxtel originals, as well as live sport.”
Foxtel play is simply too expensive for what you get. Haven’t they worked that out yet. How rich does Murdock need to be?
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I don’t think this decision has anything to do with Netflix or Stan acquiring any rights to that content as Fetch actually has some of the same channels that Foxtel are gutting from Play.
It’s possible they’re trying to move people to satellite/cable as I don’t think Foxtel are really serious about streaming and I think were forced into this space by Netflix in the first place.
Anyway I think they’re treating their current/future customers with contempt and rather greedy expecting people to pay the same cost while cutting the number of channels available to them, many which I assume would be very popular.
Personally I think they’ve made a bad move.
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Reducing their content offering, that’ll have Netflix quaking in their boots.
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Foxtel screwing over customers, yet again. Why are we surprised? So glad they no longer have the Premier League.
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Well I have just subscribed to foxtel play may as well unsubscribe again, used to be a foxtel customer but really not happy with them, premium prices for ads on normal foxtel and now more rip offs.
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I don’t believe this is related to rights or traditional ptv but rather preparation for their up & coming streaming box and an attempt to construct a more compelling product proposition for that product offering.
Why would a consumer choose to purchase their streaming box if all of its content was otherwise available on other devices through Now?
Maybe!
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Move everyone to cable and satellite you say Foxtel?
Cool, how about all the units and apartment buildings without foxtel cabling who need Foxtel Play?
Will you be ensuring all the new cookie cutter developments in Australia are foxtel ready?
Get with the times you lazy and incompetent business.
Stop treating customers and Australians with such disrespect.
The fact you only have fox sports HD on the rubbish Telstra TV box shows your true colours in order to shift more rubbish hardware (iq3 brings the lolz).
Let’s not forget the foxtel play service drops constantly and conveniently right before major sporting events.
And who can forget the fact that you fund terrorism via your YouTube ads lol
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Foxtel. A typical Australian bullying monopoly whose time is fast running out.
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Idiots have been gouging customers for too long. They are a dinosaur.
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Firstly it’s 19 channels being removed not 18. You missed the comma between Binge and SyFy.
Secondly if read the article I posted on this yesterday you will have a much better understanding of what’s actually happening https://decidertv.com/page/2017/5/21/foxtel-cuts-19-channel
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Most of the channels that have been removed are available on a much cheaper package over at Fetch TV.
I’m not sure what Foxtel are thinking. They’ve dropped their guard and will lose streaming market share because of it.
If the premium cable networks ever launch PAYG apps in Australia Foxtel’s drama packages will be worth three fifths of bugger all.
The entire pay TV platform in this country will be based on live sport. Thanks to Optus, Foxtel isn’t just competing against FTA TV in this space anymore either.
If I were sitting on the board of Foxtel, I’d be asking why someone just made the decision to offer less to customers and maintain the price – reducing our value proposition. Particularly at a time when the company should be trying to maximize it.
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Can you think of a time when they’ve made a good move?
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Hi Kevin,
You are correct, thank you for the heads up. I have amended the story now.
Cheers, Zoe – Mumbrella
I have a Platinum Package which sounds like it will cut drastically will the costs be cut accordingly.
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We recently cut back our platinum package because of cost, now we are going to get even less channels again.
Thanks foxtel for ripping off your customers.
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This is crap. The reason we have to have Foxtel play is because Foxtel will not send a technician to install their service in rural areas. Good job. I’ll cancel and get our entertainment elsewhere.
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Complaining about Foxtel Business Model & their choices is a choice, but also optional if your not happy with service or what they providing best to boycott or at least not have their services at home beyond free to air there is other options but minus the premium content which likes of HBO game of thrones & Walking dead which from AMC in US, Netflix, Stan and Amazon Prime Video is there if you want to watch content in On Demand More Consuming way, also you can’t rent buy latest movies which kinda replaces foxtel store, if you want alternatives there is alternatives. You will never need to look back at Foxtel again if you wish to do so.
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Absolutely useless!! Tonight we sat through at least a half a dozen interruptions in the hour with no signal received. F106 has been a regular pop up in our program TONIGHT AND in the last 2-3 weeks often missing the point of our show. FOXTEL cannot give a reason or time for repairs. But, direct us to their website to check for power outage? Hey FOXTEL we know there is an outage. Fix it!! We pay enough for the service.
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The fact that Foxtel are so behind in Technology does not help.
Foxtel Go is only available on Desktops and laptops, IF the Apple iOS system is very old, it also does not function with Apple Air TV or Apple TV in general, which does not help platform streaming and flexibility.
If they loosened the purse strings a little. consumers would appreciate and give back/support the service.
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It’s not just Netflix and Stan, I recently signed up to Amazon Prime, now offering Australians a good deal, U$2.95 a month for 6 months.
It’s got the amazing American Gods on it, heaps of original series, and some fun old movies. U$2.95 a month it’s hella worth it.
Then there’s GAIA. Wow. that was an accidental pre paid year subscription I wont be rolling over.
Well foxtel dropping all the channels just forces me to leave you, go to netflix
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Made several complaints and this was the only response I have got from them attempting to excuse their decision, I’m unsure if they’re aware that not everyone is interested in sports… Hi Travis, thanks for your post. We’re so sorry to hear you’re looking at deactivating your Foxtel Play due to this change. We really appreciate your feedback on this matter and will ensure your comments are passed onto the appropriate team.
“We’ve taken an extensive look at what content our Foxtel Play customers are looking for in an IP delivered service. Our review has shown that Foxtel Play customers are particularly interested in viewing a lot of content On Demand, with linear channels of most interest being our great live Sport service. As such, we’ve made the decision to remove some of our linear channels in order to re-direct resources to the kind of programming that customers want to see most of the Foxtel Play service.
Thanks again for your feedback and we hope you’ll reconsider and continue with your Foxtel Play subscription! – Rhi”
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Wait for it the final season of GoT will be full sub only on a 24 month contract with foxtel. hahaha lets see if that prediction comes true now.
im gonna miss syfy.. i wanted to watch dark matter instead i un subed till GoT starts
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I HATE FOXTEL!!!!!!!!!! I got a call 6 months ago from Foxtel suggesting I upgrade, change, my package etc and tried to sell me X Y and Z. I explained I wanted to keep it all as is except for movies and wanted that removed as it was same old rubbish replayed, I reiterated over and over what we wanted and not want. Now every time we go to watch something in entertainment it comes up that we need to upgrade our subscription! We’ve complained and we’re told certain shows are deemed DRAMA and we apparently don’t have a DRAMA subscription even though on the menu there isn’t DRAMA as a separate selection, aren’t the majority of programs drama. The bastards said if we cancel our subscription a $400 cancellation fee would be charged!!!!!!!!!!
So basically they removed everything that was on our original package and are charging us to replace what’s been taken off at $10, $20, etc etc. Is there nothing we can can do about it??? Do people have no power or say over the way we get ripped off and tricked!!!
WE ARE FURIOUS!!!!!!!
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I want to know how they can legally remove something that was in my contract with them and I paid for ? We demand answers Foxtell can’t all of a sudden say your not getting that anymore without compensation ,I will be getting legal advice .
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You took the channels give us back out money we paid for those channels as a package
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