“I just want to watch TV. Don’t make it so hard”: Hubbl launches as a streaming solution
Free to Air and Streaming came together last night to unveil the new Hubbl device, which starts at $99.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under Subscription, Top Stories
Industry faces from Free to Air TV, Subscription TV, major Sporting codes, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros and production companies all came together last night for the launch of Hubbl, the new hardware where watching, finding and subscribing to television is made easy.
Based on Britain’s Sky Glass, Hubbl comes as a $99 plug and play puck or as a 4K Ultra HD television from $1,595 which dispenses with excess wires.
The event held on a perfect night at Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair saw Free to Air faces mingling with their Subscription TV counterparts.
Hamish & Andy hosted (with Hamish even sporting a Hubble puck costume) with interviews to Australian Idol’s Scott Tweedie, Marta Dusseldorp, Adam Liaw, Richard Wilkins, and more. Execs attending included Seven’s James Warburton, SBS Programmer Peter Andrews, NRL’s Peter V’Landys, News Corp execs rubbing shoulders with Network 10, ABC, Netflix, Stan, and YouTube.
Patrick Delany, CEO of Hubbl said, “The research now says that we waste 22 days a year looking for something to watch. And what’s driving that is not the apps. The apps are unreal, the search and the layout is fantastic. We’re all using multiple apps, free and paid multiple sources of channels and the internet. We’re forever going in and out of apps. We’re plugging in inputs to our telly. It’s hard to keep track of the shows, find things, keep up with the apps. Which ones am I paying for? What am I subscribed to? We’re completely overwhelmed, we’re frustrated and we’re confused. It’s all around the world. The truth is that being entertained just isn’t that easy anymore. So we took on the gigantic challenge of fusing free and paid TV and streaming and the internet into one single experience.”
Les Wigan, Managing Director of Hubbl, says, “Hubbl stands out from the pack by offering live TV without an aerial, seamless subscription management at the touch of a button, more discoverability and personalisation as well as allowing customers to stack up to five eligible streaming apps and save up to $15 per month on their subscriptions. With the major free and paid apps available on Hubbl and more to come, there is nothing like the world of entertainment it unlocks.”
A demonstration from Fraser Stirling from the Hubbl design team said, “If I’m a customer and I’m going to go into each app individually, like Patrick said earlier, I’m just wasting time. I just want to watch TV. Don’t make it hard. So we’ve not. We’ve made it super easy.
“Sometimes the most simple solution is the best solution for customers….. They don’t think about content in the terms that we think about content, like On Demand and Catch-Up and EST. That’s not exactly how customers think about it.
They think about it like sports, and shows and movies.”
Dani Simpson, Executive Director of Hubbl, says, “Hubbl is a unique product that simplifies the TV and streaming experience so you can spend less time searching for something to watch and more time enjoying the content you love.”
Hubbl is powered by one universal remote with voice control that will allow you to find apps or channels, search for content, control playback, change settings and more. The universal remote also comes equipped with select app buttons at the top to navigate straight to Kayo Sports, Binge and Netflix as well as a Watchlist (+) button to seamlessly add content you want to watch later to your own personalised profile.
Pricing and product details:
Hubbl and Hubbl Glass will be available via Hubbl.com.au.
- Hubbl will be available at $99 (AUD)
- Hubbl Glass will be available in two sizes and five colours (Anthracite Black, Ocean Blue, Racing Green, Dusky Pink and Ceramic White)
- Hubbl Glass 55” will be available at $1,595 (AUD)
- Hubbl Glass 65” will be available at $1,995 (AUD)
- Hubbl does not require a monthly subscription – separate app subscriptions are required
- Hubbl Glass product specs available for download here
Hubbl will be available at Harvey Norman and JB Hi Fi stores. Hubbl Glass will be available exclusively at Harvey Norman.
An on-sale date for Hubbl will be announced soon.
34 Responses
I think most people can access Netflix or YouTube without much drama on the devices they already have.
The key problem with this Hubbl box is that Foxtel is the prime investor and that makes it inherently untrustworthy to me. Are going to start seeing them push Sky News/Andrew Bolt to the front page?
I doubt it. As the screenshot indicates, it’s a mix of imagery / platforms, and News would be the same.
The only thing I find hard about media boxes is avoiding the carefully crafted pop-up ads for shows that “I might like”. I know that we live in a mercantile world but someone is getting paid to interrupt my chain of thought.
There are 2 main reasons why Foxtel is investing in this technology
1) Foxtel is no longer a “Pay-TV” platform they are a technology platform. Like all technology platforms they need to keep releasing new techologies (even if it is reinventing the wheel) to stay relevant.
2) Foxtel is also becoming a data and analytics company. Don’t belive me? This is lifted straight from the Hubbl Terms and Conditions
“To create a Hubbl account you must be over 18 years old. We will require you to provide certain information, such as your email address, mobile number, password and postcode. You will provide us with proof of your identity if we reasonably ask you to do so from time to time.”
So basically..This streaming box (and TV) will have the capacity to collect data on all your viewing habbits, and all this data will be linked to your personal account and details.
Its no different to what Amazon, Google and to a lesser extent Apple already do with their streaming boxes.
Yes all broadcasters and streamers use passwords and collect data including ABC and SBS.
Yep, but in most cases you can still sign up completely anonymously to individual streaming services like iview.(Stan thinks i’m in my 90’s and I live in a completely different state ). I haven’t seen a privacy policy specific to Hubbl, only Foxtel. But I still stand on my original point (based on the above Terms and Conditions ) that Foxtel are hoping this device will allow them to pivot towards a data and analytics company, which is where the real money is!
That’s some markup on the TV sets too! The specs don’t mention 50hz support either, but surely they must have it or they’ll get a lot of complaints from sport viewers. Haven’t dug far enough to find out who made the insides. I suppose releasing that type of hardware will lock them into updating the software for a good few years. Still, I’ll stick with my chromecast or firestick.
I love this idea, but not for me as I already have similar access on my Fetch TV. Like others have noted: where is the Foxtel app? I have Chromecast for that little omission.
But my Mum could make use of it. She has a smart TV but recently some apps (ABCiView for example) have ceased support for her model. She also finds accessing streaming apps on her TV overwhelming. So I can see me buying one as a gift for her this Christmas if it simplifies finding something to watch.
The good about this is, it will make a dumb TV smart.
The bad is that if this is a Foxtel product, why can’t I see Foxtel on the banner at the top? Surely this would be the ideal replacement for the old school Foxtel Go Box…
its a dud I have all the apps I want on my smart samsung tv
We have an iQ4 box on the main TV, with an apple tv box. We rarely use the apple tv box now that the iQ4 has so many apps installed. On our other TV we have a firestick. The only thing I could see this being good for is if I could stream the Foxtel Go app on it.
It’s doesn’t have the Foxtel Go app, they want you to subscribe to Kayo & Binge, but all
Smart TVs have the Foxtel Go app…at this stage
So basically an aussie version of the Apple TV ‘hockey puck’ box, but the Apple TV does much more including games, HomeKit, Apple Music, AirPlay from your phone and all the other (free) streaming TV apps and and others in the App Store? Nope DOA
“We’re forever going in and out of apps. We’re plugging in inputs to our telly. It’s hard to keep track of the shows” – I have never encountered anyone who has complained about how much time they spend switching between streaming apps. A solution looking for a problem, perhaps?
I bet the Foxtel name brand will be phased out over the next few years. It sounds dated like Galaxy & Optus Vision.
They’ll drive Hubbl to be the main thing to run alongside Kayo & Binge.
I was thinking the same thing. Who is plugging and unplugging cables? It sounds like hyperbolic advertorial copy from a morning show.
They’ve stopped all HFC cable users (ex-Galaxy and Optus Vision) with Foxtel, and push them to Satellite or internet, as they make the most money for them as they own the technology. I don’t even think you can get cable Foxtel anymore new, its satellite, internet (rip through your own data or Foxtel NBN) or nothing.
22 days a year looking for something to watch? Seems like a made up stat to me.
Sorry but this pretty much does what my 4k Chromecast has been doing for the last 5 years, and HD Chromecast for the 5 years before that, which is it searches for any show on any app, gives me options on how I want to watch it, and then allowed me to sort via actor or director or genre or whatever.
Not sure what the attraction is, as this is selling to a pretty saturated market.
And never forget, Foxtel (and News Corp) tried to hobbl the NBN rollout to make the internet worse in this country as they saw it as a threat to their pay TV service, and now look at them. Maybe that’s where they got the name Hubbl from?
Yes! The campaigning against the NBN gets forgotten!
It got me at – “stack up to five eligible streaming apps and save up to $15 per month on their subscriptions”. Does that mean if I have Netflix and Prime I can save $15 a month? If that’s the case, I’m in.
I can’t answer that, info still seems to be emerging to us all. It may depend on how many subs.
Optus hub gives you 10% off on any streaming people subscribe to
Yes I acknowledged that in earlier story.
Save up to $15 per month. That sounds like the more you stack the more you save with a max amount of $15 otherwise it would just be save $15 and not up to $15.
The more apps you connect to your Hubbl billing account, the more money you can save.
3 apps – $5 credit //
4 apps – $10 credit //
5 apps – $15 credit
Reply to robert79: Thank you for that information.
No worries at all Perry
Are Foxtel just totally blind to the rest of the market or is there some weird strategy here we just don’t know about?
As others have said, this tech is already available and has been for years through FireStick or Chrome Cast etc… and most new TVs do this anyway.
In fact, ironically, Foxtel is launching a concept it already has itself, as its IQ5 box already serves content from the different apps on the home tab.
I’m a Foxtel subscriber but gees, really got to shake your head sometimes. This isn’t quite as weird as holding a lunch for adding a Netflix button the remote which they did a few years ago (again, 10 years later than everyone else), but it’s up there.
No Foxtel Go on Firestick however
This is redundant. All new tv’s do this. Even the branding with the missing vowel is very dated. Foxtel are always 10 years late. The only way this sells is if they make Kayo exclusive to Hubbl.
It does have a DVB tuner for when the NBN is out.
Pictures released on other web sites show the Puck has a tuner. No idea if it is usable. You’d assume it should be given we don’t have any national commercial FTA channels.
So it does less than Fire Stick/Cube or Apple TV, what’s in it for Foxtel?
I really don’t understand why Foxtel have gone down this path. There are international companies with much deeper pockets who have been in this field for years and have the market tied up. This includes Google, Apple, Amazon, and Roku; not to mention the local competition of Fetch/Telstra. It’ll be interesting to see how it pans out for them.