Foxtel Proves It’s Hip With The Kids, Will Show All Of “Orange Is The New Black” At Once

So we’ve got Netflix in Australia, as well as a bunch of rival streaming services – anyone who’s been within 100 feet of an airport billboard will be fully aware of that fact by now. And all is more or less right with the world (save for failing internet speeds, bad data caps, and an unending campaign against internet piracy that serves less as intellectual property protection and more as NewsCorp profit maintenance).

The one lingering issue that adversely affects Netflix’s operations are the pre-existing distribution deals cut for its original shows in markets where, previously, it didn’t exist.
In Australia, this applies to the way Orange is the New Black was shown “legally” in the country before the streaming giant arrived on our shores, and like so many other nice things that we simply can’t have, it was either Foxtel or nothing.
Now that Netflix is in the country, the two distributing companies exist at something of an impasse. Obviously, Netflix retains the right to air the program. It had a hand in financing and creating it, after all. But Foxtel’s contract is still valid. So the methods of distribution are split – Netflix gets the right to offer the program in a “stacked” fashion; that is, to drop all the episodes at once for streaming. Foxtel, on the other hand, has both “linear” and SVOD rights stitched up.
Currently what that means is that Foxtel’s priority distribution is the traditional one episode at a time airing method. And all episodes must air in this manner before they can offer the program as an on demand option.
Proving they’re hip and cool and down with the kids and whatnot, Foxtel’s gone and found themselves a little loophole to get around that and compete more directly with Netflix.
When the third season of the show premieres on Netflix at around 2pm on June 12, Australian time – that is, when Netflix places the whole series on their service at once – Foxtel will simply begin showing the entire season in one continuous marathon, beginning at the same time.
Doing this means that when the marathon is completed around 14 or so hours later, they can then upload the entire season to their Foxtel Anytime service and offer the episodes on an on-demand basis for any customer with an internet-connected IQ decoder box.
Showcase will then air the episodes “as repeats” once per week from the following Sunday onwards.
This method does not cover the Foxtel and Seven Network-joint owned venture, Presto.
So, in essence, Foxtel is trying to match the services offered by Netflix with regards to Orange is the New Black, meaning the services offer virtually identical options for watching the show.
Netflix will charge you around $10 per month to access the show.
Foxtel will require you to pay $45 per month, with an added $10 per month for HD, and $200 in setup and installation costs, to access the same thing.
via SMH.

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