The effects of Digital Technology on FOXTELand the strike that followed. A analysis ofthe effect keeping Bolman & Lee's ReframingOrganizations in mind.The Organization - FOXTELFOXTEL, Australia's leading subscription television provider, launched its revolutionary digital TV service, FOXTEL Digital, on 14 March offering consumers a totally new television experience with an unparalleled choice of more than 130 digital channels and services.Over $600 million was spent launching Foxtel Digital. Right now Foxtel only has a market penetration of around 23%, which they¹re aiming to bring to 40% by 2008, so they had gone all out to make their roll out a revolution in TV. And it ...view middle of the document...
Foxtel Digital is transmitted by cable and satellite.WHAT IS INTERACTIVE TV?There are actually some major differences in the interactive capabilities of free-to-air TV and Foxtel digital. Both have one-way capabilities, or "in the box" tricks, but Foxtel, because of its inclusion of a back channel (the cable connecting the digital service to your TV can carry information back to the base) has some incredible opportunities available for interactive TV. For both free-to-air and Foxtel, the digital signal can simultaneously broadcast different angles of, let¹s say, a rugby match. The viewer is therefore able to switch between different camera angles throughout the game, as their receiver is constantly receiving each of the angles. The interactivity is actually occurring in the set-top box receiving the signal. Foxtel's Sky News Active has an interactive function that allows to choose between eight video feeds, selecting what kind of news you want to access immediately. This means you can go straight to headlines, or jump to entertainment news. NDS General Manager Australia and New Zealand, Peter Iles, said the launch of FOXTEL Digital was a great credit to the project team of digital broadcast experts from NDS and FOXTEL."The combination of cable and satellite technologies coupled with the existing FOXTEL service presented some unique challenges," Mr Iles said. "Proven NDS technologies helped ensure fast time-to-market and provided the platform to launch FOXTEL Digital.""The investment in digital technology from NDS will allow FOXTEL to differentiate content and enhance the viewing experience. FOXTEL Digital is poised to become the most advanced iTV platform in the Asia Pacific region.""During the preparation for FOXTEL Digital, we conducted a global search for technology that could meet the unique requirements of the FOXTEL Digital platform. We selected NDS because VideoGuard conditional access technology met our technical needs, and also supports a variety of business models," said Patrick Delany, Director of Digital at FOXTEL.NDS is the prime systems integrator for FOXTEL Digital and drew from their global resources and expertise for the delivery team. The digital launch includes ambitious plans to upgrade set-top boxes currently deployed by FOXTEL. The rebirthing of the legacy set-top boxes to upgrade to NDS VideoGuard conditional access will enable existing FOXTEL subscribers to enjoy the new extensive digital offering without replacement of the set-top boxes.The NDS solutions used by FOXTEL are VideoGuard(R) conditional access system, StreamServer(TM) broadcasting management, Value@TV(TM) interactive TV solution and iVideoGuard(TM), which interfaces between the conditional access system and interactive applications to allow FOXTEL to offer interactive content using subscription and pay-per-use business models.NDS also developed interactive TV games seen on The Arcade, which is available to FOXTEL Digital subscribers through FOX...
