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Skip Navigation LinksPC Authority > Features > Mobile TV Buyer's Guide: Vodafone Live vs. Foxtel Mobile
Mobile TV Buyer's Guide: Vodafone Live vs. Foxtel Mobile
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FEATURE

Mobile TV Buyer's Guide: Vodafone Live vs. Foxtel Mobile

by Daniel Long  on Nov 25, 2008
Tags: Foxtel | Vodafone | 9502 | Samsung | Ericsson | TV | IQ2

Foxtel Mobile


What do you need to get started?

A Foxtel Mobile capable handset, connected to the NextG network. We tested the mobile TV service on an Imate Ultimate 9502.

Package 1) News & Docs Sky news headlines, Sky news , National Geographic Channel, Fox News, Discovery mobile, CI (Crime Investigator), CNN, BBC World

Package 2) Sports - W (wrestling channel), union, Fox Sports news, Euro Sports news

Package 3) Entertainment - TV1, Sci-Fi, Fox8, F (Fashion channel), E!, Comedy channel, Bio

Package 4) Music - Max, Channel V, V2, TMF, CMC (Country Music), MTV.

Package 5) Kids – Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Nick Jnr, Animax, Disney

Package 6) Additional channels - Weather channel, Sky News Now (both are free with any package)

Costs: Any 2 packages for $12/month

Best channels deal? Ultimate deal (all packages) for $18/month. Or 24 hours of ‘selected’ content for $4. That could be good or bad depending on how ‘selective’ the content is. Imagine, 24 hours of the wrestling channel. Yikes.

Free to air content? No chance.

Free TV? No way. Niente. Nadda.

18+ content: Keep on dreaming....

Strangest channel offering? W (wrestling) channel – as if one crazy episode of fake American wrestling wasn’t enough!

TV on demand? Sadly, no. But there’s definitely space for it – Foxtel are virtually a pay per content monopoly.

Extras? BigPond TV on mobile, which includes TVN horse racing.

Most popular channels? (according to official stats) (1.) FOX8 (2.) The Comedy Channel (3.) Channel V (4.) Channel V2 (5.) TV1

What’s lacking? Considering this is Foxtel, the offerings are still slim compared to what you get at home. For instance, there is still no rugby league content, even though that’s one of their flagship products at home. There is no lifestyle, food or travel channels either. Annoyingly, there are no live channels (like on Vodafone Live!) bundled either.

Foxtel may be gearing too much of their content to the hipsters out there, while potentially ignoring a good segment of their older audience by choosing not to host more lifestyle content.

Round 1 Verdict: A few sharp jabs from the Vodafone Live! service leaves the Foxtel Mobile suffering serious content fatigue. Vodafone Live contains a truly remarkable range of Foxtel, free to air and proprietary content, built for the live brand.

Vodafone Live! remains excellent value at $14.95 (if you bundle) and beats Foxtel Mobile's American stable of content, which fails to outshine classic episodes of the Chaser, Summer Heights High and live ABC.

At $14.95/month for all the Vodafone TV content, it’s slightly cheaper and better value than Foxtel’s Ultimate Package at $18/month. $8 per package on Vodafone Live is actually really darn good value too.

Round 1 Score card winner: Vodafone Live!


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