Foxtel has enabled its free Download "catch up" service today, and customers will be able to backup their own recordings to PC within the next 12 months.
Foxtel's long-delayed iQ2Go service is still in the pipeline and expected to be launched in the next 12 months, according to Foxtel sales and product development executive director Patrick Delany.
The Foxtel Download service would serve as a template for the introduction of a DRM-enabled service that will let customers move recordings off the Foxtel iQ for the first time, Delaney said.
"The iQ2Go has had many forms over the last five years. It started out as a 'Moses-like' tablet with its own spinning disk drive, then it moved to being a USB key and I think we're now feeling that iQ2Go becomes even more ephemeral than that," he said.
He said that the currently-dormant Ethernet port on the iQ and iQ2 will allow customers to connect their set-top boxes to a home network and move files off, as well as receive IPTV (internet TV) services sometime in 2010.
"It should be devices linked by DLNA, it should be all that content and so if you've got something that is an easy device to encrypt, because all of our stuff is paid for by subscription, then why shouldn't you be able to transfer it around. That's why Next Generation is so interesting because you've paid once, why not watch many?" he said.
Foxtel Download's service offers existing customers the opportunity to watch programming from up to 38 channels, but will only currently work on PC.
Foxtel Download launches today and will serve as a blueprint for recording backups (Credit: Foxtel)
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