and phone country australia availability satellite cable iptv founded 22 october 1995 ; 20 years ago 1995 10 22 slogan make it yours broadcast area australia parent news corp 50 % through news corp australia telstra 50 % official website www.foxtel.com.au foxtel is an australian pay television company operating a duopoly in cable television a monopoly in direct broadcast satellite television and iptv catch up services . it was formed in 1995 through a joint venture established between news corporation now news corp ; through news limited now news corp australia fox and telstra tel . foxtel s shareholders are telstra 50 % through telstra media pty ltd and news corporation now news corp ; through news limited now news corp australia . it shares many features with the sky service in the united kingdom including iq the electronic program guide a similar remote control and red button active . contents 1 history 2 ratings 3 availability 4 services 4.1 channels 4.2 defunct channels 4.3 foxtel digital 4.4 foxtel hd 4.5 foxtel download 4.6 foxtel go 4.7 foxtel play 4.8 foxtel on demand 4.9 mobile foxtel 4.10 foxtel guide 4.11 foxtel magazine 4.12 foxtel on xbox 360 and internet tv 4.13 presto 5 products 5.1 foxtel standard 5.2 foxtel iq 5.3 foxtel iq2 5.4 foxtel iq3 5.4.1 foxtel iq3 software version release information 6 advertising on foxtel 7 marketing 7.1 eofys 8 legislation affecting foxtel 8.1 anti siphoning 9 third party access 10 foxtel networks 10.1 former channels 11 see also 12 references 13 external links history edit foxtel headquarters in southbank victoria in 1995 a venture between news corporation in particular 20th century fox media and telstra took place whereby telstra would transmit a tv signal through its coaxial network and news corporation would be the basis for offering channel negotiations and connections . foxtel was formed fox representing news corporation s fox and tel representing telstra . on 23 october 1995 foxtel commenced a 20 channel service delivered over the telstra hybrid fibre coaxial network . 1 in may 1998 australis media the owner of a satellite television service known as galaxy was declared insolvent . in june 1998 foxtel was able to significantly boost its customer base by acquiring galaxy subscribers from the liquidator of australis media and immediately commenced supplying programming to galaxy s subscribers on an interim basis . 2 in february 1999 foxtel began offering its own satellite service to new customers . 3 publishing and broadcasting limited bought half of news corporations shares in october 1998 giving each quarter ownership . 4 in 2002 a content sharing agreement between foxtel and optus television was approved by the australian competition and consumer commission accc . 5 on 11 july 2011 austar announced that it had entered into definitive transaction agreements with liberty global inc. lgi and foxtel management pty limited foxtel under which foxtel will acquire austar by a series of transactions including a scheme of arrangement scheme . 6 this takeover involved a minority shareholder approval on 30 march 2012 7 the approval of the australian competition and consumer commission accc on 10 april 2012 8 and has had approval from a second court hearing . 9 the austar shares have been suspended on the asx as of 16 april 2012 10 and were delisted from the asx on 27 april 2012 . 6 the takeover was completed on 24 may 2012 . news corporation acquired consolidated media holdings in november 2012 bringing its stake to 50 % up from 25 % . 11 on 15 june 2015 foxtel officially agreed to buyout 15 % shares in ten network holdings pending the approval from the accc . prior to the acquisition discovery backed out from bidding partnership with foxtel . ratings edit foxtel grew rapidly in 2007 with most of foxtel s highest ever rating events being broadcast that year including the 2007 afc asian cup quarter final between australia and japan which drew an average of 419 000 viewers 12 an australian pay television record at that time . this ratings record has since been eclipsed by the 2011 rugby world cup on fox sports 1 averaging around 500 000 viewers which was smashed by the 2012 london olympics coverage broadcast on 8 dedicated channels in both hd and sd formats which saw an average of 946 432 viewers tuning in on the opening weekend with around 600 000 to 700 000 viewers nightly thereafter . as of 2012 fox sports channels in particular fox footy average between 90 000 and 300 000 viewers for nrl afl matches throughout the week . the highest rated light entertainment shows are the simpsons most weeknights on fox8 with around 110 000 viewers as well as family guy with around 70 000 viewers . a & e has also recorded healthy audience numbers for its trutv & a & e us syndicated shows from the us pawn stars 85 000 hardcore pawn 85 000 and storage wars 90 000 . bbc uktv also consistently rates well with british soaps eastenders 80 000 and coronation street 65 000 . the lifestyle channel has experienced audiences in excess of 100 000 people for its premiere shows location location location australia grand designs australia selling houses australia disney channel australia and the real housewives of melbourne brings strong ratings . availability edit foxtel transmits its cable service via telstra hybrid fibre coaxial hfc cable into the brisbane sydney melbourne adelaide and perth metropolitan areas along with the gold coast . foxtel now also transmits its satellite service into these cities as well as all over australia including regional areas since the takeover of austar previous austar customers are now 100 % foxtel customers with the conversion from austar to foxtel in regional australia is now complete however satellite service is not supplied to user sites where telstra hfc cable is available in metropolitan areas . foxtel on mobile launched on telstra s next g network in late 2006 and is now available within telstra next g hsdpa 850 mhz coverage areas which covers 99 % of the population . 13 telstra s network and foxtel were created to combat the threat posed to telstra s local call business by the combination of optus vision now known as optus tv content bundling with optus local telephony services ; foxtel was the content arm of telstra s defence strategy while telstra s multimedia broadband network was originally the sole delivery system . in 2002 foxtel and optus television agreed to a content sharing arrangement . programming competition between the two companies has now dissipated . prior to its acquisition by foxtel in 2011 austar a regional pay television operator also carried most foxtel programming . foxtel subscriber growth from 1995 to 2007 14 15 as of 2011 update foxtel is australia s largest pay television operator with programming available to over 70 % of australian homes and delivered to over 1.65 million 16 either directly or by foxtel s wholesale customers . in april 2008 foxtel s penetration into australian homes passed 30 % . 17 this penetration rate is significantly lower compared with market penetration rates in the us over 85 % 18 and in western europe over 55 % . 19 this is due to the fact that australian pay tv fees are significantly more expensive and pay tv began delivering its service much later in australia than in the us . original research foxtel announced its maiden annual profit in 2006 more than 10 years after it commenced services . the installation and maintenance of foxtel services is telstra s responsibility . in many markets telstra has outsourced installation and maintenance to large communications contractors including abb communications and siemens thiess communications joint venture . in 2007 network ten formed an agreement with foxtel to allow them to carry a digital version of ten s programming . included in the deal is electronic program guide data which allows foxtel iq users to schedule recordings on ten . before the agreement ten was carried in an analogue format on cable only . in 2008 seven network finally entered an agreement to allow foxtel to carry its sd signal . in 2008 the first pay tv package comparison site youcompare was launched to allow foxtel packages and pricing to be compared to selectv however this service was ceased along with the ceasing of selectv s service in late 2010 . on 15 november 2009 foxtel released an additional 25 channels to satellite and cable subscribers consisting of high definition channels movie and theme channels and several new time shifted channels . as part of the release seven began broadcasting to satellite subscribers in melbourne sydney and brisbane . on 24 november 2009 foxtel added 7two to the east coast satellite and 7two and go to cable subscribers . abc3 was recently introduced on 4 december 2009 to all foxtel and austar subscribers . on 20 may 2010 foxtel and microsoft announced a new way of receiving foxtel through xbox 360 s online service xbox live . the service launched november 2010 with 30 channels and an additional 12 video on demand channels . it also provided foxtel s movie service known as foxtel on demand to non subscribers for the first time on a pay per view basis . further linear channels were added in april 2011 with the addition of 7 telstra bigpond channels . in june 2011 foxtel launched an over the top service on telstra s iptv set top box called foxtel on t box carrying the same services as the foxtel on xbox service . also as of june 2011 foxtel s subscribers numbered just over 1.65 million . in november 2014 foxtel added 2 new sd channels 9 new hd channels and rebranded 2 sports channels to satellite and cable subscribers . services edit although originally launching in 1995 with just a cable service foxtel has branched out into many new services since its inception including broadband and phone services in 2014 . channels edit foxtel defines a virtual channel order that groups channels by their content . general entertainment channels are from 100 to 149 which includes metropolitan state based localised advertising primary channels the nine network abc sbs the seven network and network ten with metropolitan state based localised advertising multichannels abc2 abc kids 7two 9go one eleven sbs2 and food network as well as national channels tv hits arena lifestyle fox8 111 fox classics binge lifestyle you fx mtv and the foxtel on demand movie preview . also for the following extra channels which are the comedy channel 13th street nbcuniversal s universal channel bbc first and e lifestyle food lifestyle home style syfy and foxtel arts foxtel has announced key programming slated to air on its brand new channel binge . binge is be part of the drama tier and started airing 5 october 2016 at 9 00am . it will be available on channel 116 in high definition with access to closed captions and series link . 20 timeshifted versions of general entertainment channels are from 150 to 169 for a two hour delay of fox8 tv hits fox classics the comedy channel arena fx lifestyle lifestyle food lifestyle you 111 bbc first 13th street and syfy . special interest channels are from 170 to 179 which includes aurora community channel tvsn and expo channel . extra channels are from 180 to 199 which includes australian christian channel hillsong channel 7flix 7mate 9gem daystar and 9life . high definition channels are from 200 to 299 which includes metropolitan state based localised advertising versions of the abc news 24 7mate hd sydney brisbane and perth only 7hd simulcasted in melbourne and adelaide 9hd simulcasted ten hd simulcasted sbs hd simulcasted fox sports news 500 fox sports 501 fox sports 502 fox sports 503 fox footy 504 fox sports 505 fox sports 506 espn and espn2 as well as national channels