Foxtel Go – Take Your TV With You

Whether you’re already a Foxtel subscriber or you’ve been browsing their site thinking about signing up, you’ve probably seen Foxtel Go mentioned. A free service that is included with every Foxtel plan at no extra charge, Foxtel go lets you stream any of your subscribed channels line or on demand, on any computer or mobile device anywhere in Australia.

First, let’s talk about what Foxtel Go isn’t. There’s a bit of confusion when it comes to Foxtel Go versus Foxtel’s other online streaming service Foxtel Now. And that’s understandable – the two services do share in common the ability to watch almost all of Foxtel’s channels at any time of the day or night. And they’re also streamed live via the internet, rather than through a dedicated cable. But the similarity ends there.

Foxtel Go is not a service that you can subscribe to by itself. You can download the app for free, sure, but when you fire it up you’ll be presented with a prompt to enter your Foxtel account login details. That’s because the Foxtel Go App is a companion to the main Foxtel service itself, and requires an active Foxtel subscription to function. Foxtel Now, meanwhile, is a live-streamed version of the actual Foxtel subscription service that you pay monthly for. In a nutshell, if you want to watch Foxtel, you have two choices – subscribe to the cable/satellite service, or subscribe to Foxtel Now. Either of those will get Foxtel onto your TV screen at home.

What Makes Foxtel Go Unique?

Foxtel Go works either via apps for your mobile phone and tablet devices or through your computer’s web browser – it’s the Foxtel you can have when you don’t have the Foxtel box physically in front of you. When you subscribe to Foxtel’s pay TV services, you automatically get access to Foxtel Go with all your subscribed channel packs available to stream. You can browse through live channels as easily as you would channel-surf at home.

From a value point of view, it’s brilliant. For no extra money at all – yes, it’s completely free and included with your subscription – you can take your Foxtel with you on your smartphone or tablet, anywhere you go.

Easy to Use and Incredibly Handy

Once you download the free app, which is available for iPhone, iPad and Android devices – or head to the new Foxtel Go web site in your computer’s web browser – you then sign in with the same login that you use to access your Foxtel account online. You will have been given those details when you signed up for a subscription.

Now here’s the good bit: you can watch Foxtel via Foxtel Go on two devices simultaneously at the same time as someone watches Foxtel on the TV via their iQ box or Foxtel Now. And yes, they can be on different channels! That’s great news for, say, families with kids that want to watch the latest episode of The Flash at the same inconvenient time that dad wants to watch the US Open. You don’t even need to be in the same house (or even the same part of the country) to do it, either. Just as long as a maximum of two Foxtel Go streams are being watched at a time. There’s a limit of three registered devices that you can log into with your account (only two can stream at a time) and you can swap out a device for a new one once every 30 days.

Live TV and On Demand at Your Command

When you load up the app or web site, you’re greeted with a screen of recommendations, and then can choose between watching live TV or selecting a show from the titles available on demand. What’s on offer for both is directly tied to the channel packages your home Foxtel service has access to; the channels and shows you can’t play display a “lock” symbol to make it crystal-clear what you can and can’t view.

For live TV, it’s as simple as tapping on the channel you want from the list. The program currently screening on each channel is right there in the list to make things nice and fast. Just tap and within seconds you’ve got live Foxtel in your hands, the show playing in a tiny window. Just turn your phone on its side (on tablets and browsers tap the full-screen icon) and the video flips to fill the screen so you can watch without distractions.

Another neat feature is the “iQ” icon on the show’s page as it plays. Tapping that lets you instantly command your iQ box at home to record the show. Yes, that’s right, you can actually record on your home PVR from anywhere in Australia where there’s internet access. This feature’s perfect for those times – and we’ve all done it – where you head out for the evening and suddenly realise you forgot to set the iQ to record Game of Thrones. Just fire up the Foxtel Go app, find the show in the list, and start it recording for you to watch when you get back home. It’s a brilliant feature.

A World of Sport Streamed Live

One of the killer features of Foxtel Go isn’t one that you’d immediately think of – the ability to watch live streams of your favourite sports no matter where you are. Every Fox Sports channel is available on the app. So if you’ve got the sports pack active on your Foxtel service, you automatically get access to those channels on your mobile devices. You don’t need to rush home to watch the footy or the Formula One if you’re out and about – just pull out your phone or tablet, fire up Foxtel Go and have the action streamed live, anywhere you happen to be.

And that means access to live streams of dozens of the most-watched sports in Australia and around the world, including AFL and NRL, as well as Super Rugby, international and domestic cricket, the Big Bash League, A-League soccer, the Supercars, the Rugby 7’s and Wallabies, F1, NBA basketball, PGA golf, ATP tennis, UFC, MotoGP and much more.

And that’s just scratching the surface of what’s on offer, with 18 channels streaming live sports wherever they’re happening in the world, 24 hours a day. Don’t forget, you can tell your iQ box back at home to start recording any channel you’re watching at any time – so if that last quarter looks like being a nail-biter, you can capture it on your iQ and watch it when you get home in HD!

Great Picture Quality Wherever You Are

The good news is, you can stream in HD using the Foxtel Go app if your device supports it. But the app does an excellent job of scaling the streamed image to your screen’s size even on smaller devices, which can save data – you don’t want to be streaming HD on a cellular connection, even if you had a generous data cap, because the data rate required for HD would eat up your allowance in no time. It’s a good compromise between usability and quality, and we think they’ve got the balance right.

Getting in Touch with Foxtel Go

If you’ve got any questions about how to use Foxtel Go, how to get it working on your device or to ask about which channels you have access to (or to add more channels to your Foxtel subscription), just give their friendly team a call on 1300 760 579 and they’ll point you in the right direction. The great thing about the Foxtel Go service, though, is how well designed it is – it just works, and chances are you’ll never need to talk to anyone to get set up and streaming on the go.

Foxtel Go – You Can Take It With You

You can’t get a better price than free, and Foxtel Go is exactly that – a totally free bonus on top of the Foxtel subscription you already pay for. It gives you a lot more flexibility about how, when and where you watch your Foxtel shows, and has the added bonus of working as a remote-recording control for your iQ box at home, making sure you never miss any of your favourite shows no matter where you are. The app itself is extremely well designed and runs perfectly on a wide variety of devices – it’s fast, responsive and easy to use, with playback of the live-streamed channels being smooth and flawless.

If you’ve got Foxtel, grab the Foxtel Go app for your mobile devices and give it a try. It won’t cost you a cent, and it might just make your entertainment options that much better.