The battle for content is heating up in Australia on the eve of NBN Co switching on its open access fiber network next week.
On the one side are ISPs such as iiNet, Internode and Primus, which are preparing to launch commercial IPTV services over NBN Co’s network.
On the other side, there’s Telstra and its 50%-owned pay TV outfit Foxtel.
iiNet has signed a deal for IPTV programming with Fetch TV, which is 40% owned by Malaysian pay TV operator Astro.
With Fetch, viewers can get 20 free streaming channels and movies from Disney, Warner Bros., MGM and Village Roadshow.
Fetch will cost A$19.95 ($17.45) a month on top of iiNet’s 25Mbps fiber starter pack which includes 10GB of data for A$49.95.
In addition, iiNet has licensed some sports rights (such as English Premier League) from distributor PMG Sports, which sells key sports rights to the Fox Sports channels, which are carried by Foxtel.
iiNet CEO Michael Malone says iiNet has canned its initial plans to source IPTV content entirely itself since virtually all major content rights are already stitched up or too expensive.