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$50 for Foxtel’s Winter Olympics

Foxtel viewers will have to fork out between $50 - $65 to watch the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, but there is plenty of coverage for those who do.

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olympicsFoxtel has announced its pricing plans for its 2010 Winter Olympics coverage, offering an “early bird” rate of $50 for 17 days of action, or $65 for a Season Pass which goes on sale in 2010.

The fees come on top of monthly subscription rates for viewers.

With sport as its biggest drawcard, Foxtel will offer more extensive coverage of events than the Free to Air broadcast by the Nine Network, with 1600 hours of coverage.

CEO Kim Williams said: “Foxtel’s coverage of the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games will feature more than 340 hours of live coverage, compared with only 10 hours live coverage of the 2006 Torino Olympic Winter games.

“We will complement our television broadcast with mobile, broadband, and interactive delivery platforms making the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games available anytime and anywhere,” he said.

“We will take all of the extraordinary possibilities of our digital platform – our iQ set-top-boxes, SD and HD channels, surround sound, interactive services, electronic programming guide, and mobile and broadband services – to showcase the 17 days of competition with greater depth, breadth, excitement and relevance than ever before.”

Foxtel’s coverage will be carried over four dedicated channels branded as:

* Cyprus: will cover free style aerials, moguls, snowboarding and ski cross.
* Creekside: will cover alpine skiing, ice hockey finals, and curling finals
* Whistler: will cover cross country skiing, ski jumping, biathlon, bobsleigh, skeleton and luge.
* Vancouver: will cover all figure skating, hot track and speed skating.

There will also be four standard definition channels.

Austar will also offer the events to regional Australia (except WA).

When Foxtel announced its rights for 2010 there was no mention that subscribers would have to pay an additional fee to access events. So far there is also no clarity on whether the telecast will be ad free.

37 Responses

  1. If you’re in New Zealand, they have Prime (free to air channel) who are showing the games from 6am-6pm daily. That’s far superior to Nine’s coverage. Sky Sports have 4 dedicated channels however the big difference is that Sky are not charging their customers anything extra (as long as you have the sports option). Foxtel are ripping us off !

  3. By the way, I have Foxtel as well and i totally agree that $50 to $65 is way too much. Yes, it’s broadcast in SD and HD, but for us customers who already pay a pretty penny for Foxtel, it’s not fair to be charging us that much. If anything, it should be free! I’ve given them enough money over the years that at elast they could reward their customers with something like the olympics. Once every two years (summer and winter) wouldn’t be hurting them too much profit wise….

  4. I’m a Canadian, and I guess becuase of that, I love the winter and the winter olympics. I can understand aussies not being interested, but once you’ve been in the snow and experienced what it’s like, you’ll miss it when its not there. Sure, it’s cold, but you get used to it and of course you dress for it. For those of you who are knocking back the winter games just because you’ve never experienced snow/winter, you’re missing out. Whatever the coverage channel 9 gives, watch it and give it a go! Isn’t that the australian way???!!!! Besides, the winter games are so much more visually stunning and appealing than the summer games….
    Wathc it, then judge it guys….Cheers!

  5. I can’t believe how many people are complaining about this, blah blah blah. I currently pay $90 for Fox a month, and with this I get all the sport I need LIVE around the world, Super 14 rugby, Tri Nations, golf, cricket, MLB, NFL, NBA, I could go on. I would in fact pay the $90 just for the live sport alone. On top of this there are great channels like Discovery, Food, Lifestyle, How To, National Geographic, Music, Kids programs, etc, so I think I’m getting something decent for $90. Now to pay another $50 for full Winter Games coverage is again, well worth it. To even get the choice of being able to watch it is a great thing. I probably couldn’t even name one competitor, but I will definitely be watching these games as it’s an amazing event. A true sports fan wouldn’t be whingeing and complaining like everyone on here. Be thankful we have the option rather then not seeing anything at all. I won’t even mention FTA coverage.

  6. Who are the “faces of the coverage” the people who do the talking? Will they be US or Canada or UK people? Coverage from an Amercan or UK POV? Or will Australian Fox people go over and front the shows?

    EG: When the Kangaroos tour the UK and we have to listen to the UK commentators calling the game, you get the game from a UK POV, and it makes it less enjoyable.

  7. I purchased the early bird at the last Com.games, even after confirming my order it did not activate on the night, they told me it was ok, they would sort it just keep pressing the buy now red button each day, cost me a fortune they charged me the early bird and the price the daily price. it took months to sort it out, in the end they knocked the money off the monthly charge over a period of months. Never again will I pay/book for any movies, sport, etc. where you change things out of the normal monthly pattern. They can’t cope with changes.

  8. My understanding is that Foxtel will show stuff in long-form – so you’ll see the entire round or event. Nine will dip in and out much more. $50 seems pretty reasonable if Winter Olympics are your thing. It’s certainly far more visually spectacular than the Summer games. I imagine in HD it will look pretty amazing.

  10. I love the winter games and I’d love to say I’ll just stick with the 9 highlights, but knowing they’ll just feature a few failed aussie competitors and not actually the real highlights I’ll probably be signing up, $50 sounds fair for 4 channels in HD.

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