Back in the wild promising days of September 2013 our good friends at Foxtel announced they were launching an exciting new product and rather strongly hinting that it may well be the Aussie answer to Netflix. If the intervening time has dulled your memory of this then you can always have a quick look at this wonderful analysis of the announcement right here.
Apparently this less than revolutionary service was to be up by the end of 2013, but here we are nearing the end of January and there is still no sign. The Presto website has next to no information but the Australian Financial Review apparently reported it was due to "software issues". I would link it for you but the story is lurking behind a paywall and frankly Foxtel costs too much as it is.
I'm guessing the software issues related to the fact that they could not guarantee a smooth enough service for the rather steep asking price, and potentially couldn't nail down exclusive streaming rights for much of the content.
Really the main purpose of this move by Foxtel is to ensure that Netflix and Hulu are not able to officially provide their services to the ever growing contingent of Australian subscribers. After all, if Foxtel has the all the streaming rights then any new players in the Aussie market would probably have to pay through the nose to access the content or simply will not be able to compete with the selection.
So at the end of the day we are still left with sub par offerings when it comes to on-demand content, a fact that is unlikely to change when Presto finally manages to launch.
