Telstra switches on new IPTV content and apps

Telstra customers have more ways to connect to their favourite entertainment with today’s launch of Australia’s first iPhone remote control app; the expansion of FOXTEL on T-Box to ADSL customers in selected areas of NSW and Victoria and BigPond Movies coming soon on tablets.

The new services come as latest research indicates more than two-thirds (67 per cent) of Australians haven’t hired a DVD in the past month due to more convenient ways of accessing movies.

Telstra’s Executive Director of Media, J-B Rousselot, said the connected home, where devices talk to each other and content was available on demand, was now a simple and affordable reality for Australians.

“Internet-enabled entertainment is fast becoming the norm as products like the Telstra T-Box and smart TVs become part of the furniture in living rooms across the country. The technology has evolved from being a novelty for technology enthusiasts into something anyone can understand and use,” Mr Rousselot said.

The new Telstra iPhone app is free to download and gives T-Box customers the ability to change the channel, record and, by shaking the iPhone, mute the sound. An Android version of the app will soon be available.

“The new app puts the T-Box remote control on the screen of the iPhone so customers can easily scroll through channels, record a program or control the volume from anywhere in their home. With around half of Telstra’s mobile customers owning a smartphone we’ve spent considerable time designing the app to ensure the technology in our homes is working together to give customers a more integrated home entertainment experience.”

Telstra has continued the roll-out of FOXTEL on T-Box service with ADSL customers in selected areas of NSW and Victoria now able to connect to 30 channels of FOXTEL content. This follows the switch-on of the service for cable customers in June.

“We’ve been delighted with the early take-up of the service with one in nine Telstra cable customers in FOXTEL coverage areas switching on the FOXTEL on T-Box service. We know the range of content, and the fact customers can switch on and off the service month by month, has hit the sweet spot for our customers so will continue to roll the service out to more Australians in the months ahead.”

Telstra Connected Home Index[1]research findings:

• Nearly one in five Australians (18 per cent) say IPTV is already a necessary fixture in their home
• A third of Australians (34 per cent) have an IPTV product such as a smart TV or set top box on their shopping list for the immediate future
• Aussies are as likely to stay at home and download movies via the internet or watch video-on-demand on their TV, as they are to visit the cinema
• More than two-thirds (68 per cent) of Australians agree that their home entertainment experience has been enhanced by innovative IPTV products, with the most popular features being downloading and watching movies (31 per cent) and watching catch-up TV (33 per cent)

“There’s no question the future of home entertainment is digital and the new services launched today, as well as the live AFL content arriving next year, is set to accelerate demand for the service even more,” Mr Rousselot said. “We’re continuing to expand our digital content in the year ahead and we will be providing BigPond Movies to Android tablets and continuing to upgrade our content on the T-Box and other smart devices to give customers even more choice.”

Since the launch of Telstra’s T-Box, more than 200,000 devices have been sold and more than 1.8 million BigPond movies have been downloaded via T-Box[2].

[1] Research conducted online by Pure Profile in September 2011with a representative sample of 1249 Australians, aged between 18-65+, from across Australian in both metropolitan and regional areas
[2] Telstra Annual Results, August 2011