Hello,

As a club member and big AFL fan, I am absolutely horrified at your digital broadcast service. My path recently trying to watch the game has been as follows…

I bought the AFL Live App (as I have done many years running) only to discover the mirroring service to my TV has been disabled, as with the iPad (the iPad is essentially a paperweight for AFL coverage now that you minimise the screen size as well). The AFL Live App has forced an update through which has clearly not been bug tested – the Telstra AFL Live page is covered in complaints about the fact that the app simply does not work – it doesn’t recognise accounts already paid for, and if it does the video is not playing. At $90 per year for phone-only coverage this is not good enough.

I cancelled my AFL Live account and sought a refund via the ACCC, as these are not Terms and Conditions that were present when I started my subscription.

BUT it seemed that the (awful) reason I was no longer able to get what I needed through your service was because you sold the rights to Foxtel, and I would have to go through the much more expensive Foxtel Play system, being forced to pay for a ton of crap I don’t want. But I thought “whatever, I can cope, I just want to watch the game, I’ll check out the Foxtel trial”…

…but my TV is from 2012/13, and Foxtel Play is not supported on it. Talk all you like about modernism and technology advancement, I don’t think a Samsung Smart TV from 2012 should fall outside the realms of supported devices. I notice it is listed as “Smart TV’s from 2011 onwards are supported”, but no amount of software updates for my TV can satisfy Foxtel Play.

BUT it should be ok, because I can put the Foxtel Play App on my iPhone 6s+ which is technology that was cutting edge until just a couple months ago. Even when going through their own system, Airplay mirroring is STILL disabled, so I still cannot watch the game. Keep in mind this is the option that would cause me – the fan – a bill in excess of $420 a year to watch your game, yet it still will not do what I want it to do.

The same is true of my Xbox360 – I do not wish to buy a Xbox One of a PS4, so your digital broadcast rights deal has STILL buggered me even after trying to use iPhone, iPad, Smart TV, Apple TV, Xbox 360.

I’ve tried now using my 2013 Desktop iMac, which runs at an incredibly subpar quality (360p? Despite my connection running around 22MBPS) compared to Netflix, the app is designed by a toddler (searches across the app for “Fox Footy” or “AFL” yield no results even while the AFL is being played on Fox Footy). Within ten minutes my connection had dropped out and I could not convince it to start again.

I notice that all the (non profitable, I’m sure) sports such as NBA, Major League Baseball, NFL etc have a fantastic service that’s easily accessible across all the devices listed above. What has the AFL done to decide that digital media is so worthless? It’s the damn internet, it’s not a new technology.

Thanks for nothing,

GrandHarbler

PS. If I want access to the Smart Replays (Unavailable through Foxtel) I would have to pay a FURTHER $90 to access the non-working AFL Live App as well as Foxtel, bringing my bill for horrid, horrid quality access – that I can’t watch in the way I want, or in a quality that’s watchable – to $510.