SYDNEY: Australia's largest ISP and mobile content provider, BigPond, is set to launch a “virtual” concert series, to be streamed live online and on mobiles from 24 September.
BigPond’s latest digital content initiative, Monday Night Live, will record live performances of artists including Ben Lee, Shannon Noll and Paul Kelly, to stream on its BigPond.com.au portal and available on Telstra 3G and NextG mobile handsets.
The move follows BigPond’s first ever live simultaneous web and mobilecast of a Missy Higgins concert in June this year. Justin Milne, BigPond group managing director, said the Higgins concert was a success and he expects similar results for the Monday Night Live series.
“Delivering entertainment via new media is BigPond’s speciality, and with tickets to see these artists being some of the hottest and hardest to get hold of at the moment, this is simply the best way for fans to experience their top-notch music,” Mr Milne said.
The series is sponsored by NAB Low Rate Visa Card, which Milne said was a “great endorsement” of BigPond’s concept of “cyber concerts”.
The 13-gig series will “air” every Monday night at 9pm from 24 September. Users will also be able to view the gigs on demand after each live performance.
The Monday Night Live performances will be free to view online, but NextG customers can expect to pay $2.95 per live concert and $0.50 for on-demand performances.
BigPond today also announced its new turbo charged broadband, which will double the download speed for many of its Cable Extreme customers from 17 megabites per second (Mbps) to 30 Mbps.
Justin Milne, BigPond group managing director, said the new speeds would be available to more than 1.8 million Sydney and Melbourne homes and businesses, but there were no immediate plans to roll out the new cable network to other parts of Australia.
“It’s like turning a V8 street car into a V8 Supercar for $10 a month extra,” Mr Milne said. “At 30 Mbps, theoretically you can download a Hollywood blockbuster from BigPond Movies in less than five minutes, or stream it instantly,” Milne said.
Milne also used the opportunity to take a swipe at the lack of federal government support for fast broadband. “It shows that Telstra is determined to provide its customers with world-class broadband services despite the political and regulatory roadblocks that are put in our way. If regulators get out of the way, Telstra invests in high speed broadband for Australia,” Milne said.
Eligible BigPond customers will be able to access the new high speed network from $39.95 per month on a 200MB download plan.
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