Bluey's Dad

It's pretty clear to me that Abbott is just using the plebiscite idea as a smokescreen. It means he doesn't have to reiterate his backwards views on same-sex marriage and can claim to be 'giving normal aussies a voice' on the issue. He's playing politics.

I would assume someone who uses their internet services. It'd be the easiest way to limit the app. If someone's not on their network, they don't get in.

I'm still trying to process this Telstra decision. They're actively making it worse. There's no way I'll ever sign up for a Telstra or Foxtel account, given these sorts of horrendous tactics. It's akin to when the FTA stations treated us like crap and left 2 year gaps between importing content from the US, or airing episodes out of order and in different timeslots. In the long run, it'll just drive people away. I would be more than happy to pay a reasonable price to stream Live HD AFL. They simply do not want to give me this option. Happy to read that the AFL will be on Foxtel GO and Play from 2017, it isn't right now. I'll just take a relative's account information and sign in and watch at home without paying Foxtel a dime. I should start a goddamn website where people who don't use them can sell their Foxtel Go logins for cheap.

Holy [censored]! "Telstra's AFL Live Pass continues under the new deal, letting you watch every match with the option to pay for just one week or month rather than signing up for the entire season. It's been available on smartphones and tablets for a few years, but under the new deal it's only available to Telstra subscribers. So as other sporting codes around the world extend their streaming services, the AFL is actually abandoning paying customers who don't want to sign up for Telstra." Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/computers/gadgets-on-the-go/foxtel-and-telstra-still-have-footy-fans-by-the-balls-20150819-gj2f76.html#ixzz3jDserDKD

Why not? If the laws won't let Channel 7 do the grand final in HD on the main channel, simulcasting on 7Two with HD seems the perfect solution to me.

Not sure how it's even an issue. Do SD on the main channel, and simulcast in HD on 7Two or whatever. Stick a little occasional notice on the main channel saying "go to 7Two for HD" and off we go. Everybody wins. Happy that they will be doing HD soon though. They should have done it a long long time ago.

As expected, Telstra have the digital rights. I can't find the details on if it's just the digital MOBILE rights, which they currently have and use as an excuse not to stream in anything not resembling a pixellated blur, or FULL digital rights. I hope that Foxtel/Newscorp elect to sell those Saturday games to Channel 10/Newscorp.

This is how I see it as well. Telstra getting streaming rights is a disaster, as they'll just offer the poorest service they can get away with in order to drive Foxtel subscriptions. I bet I won't be seeing an "AFL App" on my TV any time soon. The idiots even went out and bought and branded a bunch of Roku 2's to sell and package, which is already surpassed by the Roku 3.

I hope there's just enough delusion left in the board for them to think that hiring Malthouse is a good idea...

Yeah I'm with you on that, 7 is pretty bad. But pretty bad is better than nothing, or sitting behind an unreasonable paywall.

Thanks LDC. I knew there'd be something in there to further entrench Foxtel. Can't have more games on FTA now that they have more capacity now can we? I'm sure the streaming rights will still be a joke, and Channel 7 will probably stick with SD. No FTA game on a Saturday afternoon is a complete joke. Undermines the culture of the game imho.

Can't wait to see how the fans get screwed into purchasing foxtel this time.

Damn I love the internet

You can see it? I thought you had to be a member! Off I go then!

Post some of the best bits back here for us to enjoy! Also, loving reading this: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/james-hird-quits-reaction-as-essendon-parts-ways-with-bombers-coach/story-fni5f6kv-1227488529844

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ROBBO! This gem from 2 GODDAMN DAYS AGO: Sacking James Hird would be a cop out by the Essendon board Someone needs to retweet this back to him, he posted this link on his feed 2 days ago.

Exactly. If they were winning he'd still be there. To the EFC, the larger crime is losing, not the injecting.

Lol, don't make the mistake of thinking that this is because of the injections. He's gone because they're losing by huge margins.

In almost all cases, I'd say it's pretty detrimental. However, the last few pages of the Essendon drugs thread is pretty glorious. Comparing Mr Hird with various tragic literary figures was pretty great. I also quite enjoy BBO and Moonshadow's bromance. I really hope the two of them can finally make it together and adopt that problem orphan Stuie.

Please tell me Airplane Repo isn't really a thing. I'm still struggling with the news that Channel 7's cat show pulled 1.5 million viewers. As if the MFC hadn't sucked all the hope I had for humanity out of me, now TV does this to me. Why did you betray me TV? Why?

From what I've read, it's not clear. My best guess would be some sort of advertising as opposed to a paid subscription. Google is primarily an advertising company after all. I paid for Telstra's AFL streaming service last year, but the quality was awful. Did the trail week this year and it hadn't changed. They use the excuse that Telstra only have the streaming rights for mobile devices, and thus don't bother with higher resolutions. But it looks [censored] on a 10 inch tablet, and even that's a lot smaller than what I'd want to watch the footy on. Even the smart replays aren't in high def. It's my opinion that the AFL, Foxtel, Telstra and Channel 7 are deliberately not making high-quality live on-demand AFL available in order to preserve the status quo. They know as soon as that genie is out of the bottle that there's no going back. Foxtel in particular loses its best service offering if people can stream live AFL over the net. It has very little to offer other than live sport. You just have to look at how much market share Netflix has gained in the last few months to see that the market is already primed for this type of content delivery.

I hope the rumours about Google wanting to buy the streaming rights are correct. We can just stream high def youtube on whatever device we want. I'll never buy foxtel. All I want is to watch the Melbourne games, but I have to pay for all the crap that comes with it.

You have to go easy on them LDC. I read that some day soon every traditional free to air station will have multiple digital stations, so they'll be able to play all the games on free to air every week! In the meantime, you have to live in the now. 1993.

I have yet to hear a convincing argument against gay marriage, I would be curious if someone had one also.

Rofl! Robbo is such a nob. Trying to push the demons angle as far as he can to distract from Essendon, thinking he can get into an ex-player who may be disgruntled. Jimmy saw right through it. You ripper Jimmy. Also the comment from Brock was good too.