Foxtel’s soft-look streaming is not the future

Of course, both Binge and Foxtel Now are also hamstrung by the fact that Foxtel doesn’t want them to be too successful. That’s why they’re denied 4K, as well as high dynamic range which adds more detail in the brightest highlights and darkest shadows. Instead, Foxtel forces customers to fork out for a satellite dish and iQ4 set-top box if they want to make the most of their 4K television.

That said, Game of Thrones isn’t available in 4K HDR even on Foxtel’s satellite service, nor does HBO broadcast it in 4K HDR in the US. These broadcasters paid the price for this last year when Game of Thrones‘ long-awaited Battle of Winterfell turned into a murky nightmare.

Loading

The creators of the show said the excessively dark scenes were a deliberate style choice, but that’s little consolation to those viewers who struggled to see anything in the frantic battle.

Foxtel and HBO were quick to blame people’s televisions, but that excuse doesn’t cut it when the Battle of Winterfell still looked terrible on my LG Ultra HD OLED, designed to cope well with dark scenes and motion blur.

The battle probably looked amazing in the editing studio; the real culprit was the broadcasters’ heavy-handed compression which sacrificed the fine details and shades in the shadows. The larger your television, the worse it looked.

The Battle of Winterfell is restored to its full glory on Ultra HD Blu-ray disc, remastered in 4K and HDR. Assuming you haven’t ditched your disc players to embrace the streaming revolution.

Loading

Despite the backlash from viewers who were left stumbling around in the dark, HBO is still holding out on the shift to 4K. Just like Foxtel’s Binge, HBO’s new HBO Max streaming service in the US lacks 4K, to ensure it’s not more attractive than a traditional pay TV service.

When these pay TV giants had the world’s most popular TV show they felt they could get away with ignoring 4K. To be fair, Game of Thrones started screening back in 2011 before any of the streaming services had embraced 4K.

These days, all of the other streaming giants including Netflix offer their flagship content in 4K, because they don’t have a vested interest in treating their streaming viewers as second-class citizens. Without 4K, HBO and Foxtel will find it harder to replicate the success of Game of Thrones when viewers have come to expect more from blockbuster entertainment.

If Foxtel really wants to retain its place in Australian lounge rooms, it needs to ensure the future of streaming is crystal clear.