Internode debuts fetchtv IPTV service over NBN

Australian broadband company Internode has become the first company to deliver the fetchtv IP TV service over Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN), showing it in action at a house in the western Sydney suburb of Bunya. Although the multicast service designed to provide IPTV is not scheduled for release on the NBN until mid-2012, Internode has designed a delivery system that allows it to provide fetchtv right away. The fetchtv subscription service provides subscribers with Video-on-Demand movies and programming, time-shifted television viewing and a range of new TV channels. As well as free-to-air TV channels, fetchtv offers dozens of on-demand TV channels plus special channel packages for subscribers who want TV content from India, Pakistan, China, Singapore/Taiwan, South Korea and the Philippines. The demonstration saw Internode deliver a range of video-on-demand content via the NBN including new-release movies, high-definition Luxe TV, the Hindi Pack and The Great Wall TV Pack. The football club channel for Senator Conroy’s English Premier League team, Chelsea FC, was also demonstrated, available as part of fetchtv’s sports pack. Internode product manager Jim Kellett said delivering fetchtv over the NBN showed the company’s commitment to this new customer channel. “It completes the triple play of data, voice and video. Rather than wait for the NBN to deliver multicast, we have worked out how to use existing technology to deliver high-quality video-on-demand using fetchtv over the NBN.” Although every Internode broadband customer has access to the fetchtv Lite, via its digital PVR, Internode customers with a fast connection, such as the NBN or via an Internode-direct DSLAM port, can upgrade to the fetchtv Full service, which offers dozens of on-demand TV channels, every new-release movie as pay-per-view on-demand, a selection of 30 free ‘library’ movie titles each month and a range of free TV show episodes from major studios. The event was aimed at providing an advance demonstration of Internode’s fetchtv Full service, which will be released over the NBN when it reaches commercial status later in 2011. Fetchtv Lite is already available throughout Internode’s network, including on the NBN.