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At seven o'clock tonight, a handful of families in Melbourne and Sydney
will switch on their Optus Vision cable TV services and get the first hint of
why Optus Vision and Telstra are betting $7 billion on the cabling of Australia.
Earlier, a cast of luminaries, including the Communications Minister, Mr Lee,
Australia's richest man, Mr Kerry Packer, his son, James, and the 60 Minutes
presenter Ms Jana Wendt are to gather at the Overseas Passenger Terminal at
Sydney's Circular Quay to toast the service as it is switched on.
But it is the response of the households that have forked out $30 for their
connection and $25-$40 a month for the service that will determine whether Optus
Vision's $3 billion gamble pays off. What will they tell their friends?
The Optus Vision service that comes down the cable tonight will be an
incomplete one.
The cut-price local telephone service, which Optus Vision expects to provide
about half its revenue after 10 years, will not be available until early next
year.
Optus Vision's ``12-channel service" will include four movie channels (one
of them repeated on time delay), two sports channels, Turner Broadcasting's
Cartoon Network and CNN international news, Country Music Television, an
education channel (Horizon Learning), a 24-hour weather channel and an
electronic program guide.
It has the edge in sports, with domestic sports such as AFL, Sheffield
Shield, domestic cricket internationals, Rugby Union tests and official Rugby
League on Sports Australia, and the world's biggest sports networks, ESPN, for
international sports such as English Premier League soccer, NFL football, major
league baseball and NBA basketball.
But its rival, Foxtel, a partnership of Telstra and Rupert Murdoch's News
Corp that launches more than 20 channels on 23 October, has a slight edge in
movie programming, with its Showtime premium and Encore classics movie channels,
plus TNT and SBS's World Movie Channel.
And in general entertainment, Optus Vision is hardly showing the flag, while
Foxtel lines up Red (a locally produced music channel), Arena and TV1 (general
entertainment), Max (children's) and FOX and fX! (Fox shows like The Simpsons,
Baywatch, Melrose Place, plus News's rebel Super League and Super Union rugby).
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