Serious questions are being asked as to why Telstra is developing an operating system for TVs, via their 51% share of Fetch TV ,as revealed at last week’s Senate Inquiry into the streaming industry, when they already own a big chunk of Foxtel who has subscription bases that Telstra and Fetch can only dream of.

The investment in the development of a TV OS, by Telstra who already own 35% of Foxtel Group appears to be the big carrier, having another crack at trying to get a share of trailing revenues, generated from apps spanning video, gaming and music, having already failed several times with both Microsoft and Roku, the business has also held discussions with Amazon in the past  who own the Fire TV OS.

Seperate Foxtel research reveals that the bulk of Telstra customers access streaming via a Foxtel Group owned app or a Foxtel box.

The biggest question is why is Telstra so desperate to invest in streaming and a TV OS, when research shows that of the 3.6M Telstra customers who get their NBN Internet connection via Telstra, the bulk are not using their free Telstra TV box with a Roku OS.

The installed base for Telstra TV is claimed to be 800,000, what’s not known is how many of these boxes are actually active and used for streaming purposes, as the bulk of their customers use Foxtel or access streaming apps via their TV. Questions are being asked as to how many will activate a Fetch TV bocx that is being pushed out as a replacement for the struggling Telstra TV offering.

Some insiders claim that the acquisition of Fetch TV was because “very few of the Telstra TV box owners were not using the box”.

The move by Telstra, comes as consumers move to access local TV networks and streaming apps via a an Internet connected Puck or TV similar to the Hubbl OS, delivered last week in Australia by the Foxtel Group which Telstra could have had a bigger share of in the past had they taken up a previous offer of increasing their shareholding in the Group.

The big Australian telecommunications carrier has been trying for decades to grab a larger share of the streaming market in Australia.

Back in 2005 Telstra terminated an evaluation of Microsoft’s IPTV system.

At the time Microsoft was also trying to get into the streaming business, their attempts also failed with Google Apple and Amazon outman overing the US software giant.

“Telstra was an early participant with Microsoft in its early adopter IPTV program but we did not commit to take this to trial,” a Telstra spokesman said at the time.

Ten years later Telstra had another crack at trying to get into the streaming market.

This time they cuddled up to US streaming and TV OS Company Roku who in 2015 launched the Roku powered Telstra TV Box.

Telstra then group managing director for media and marketing Joe Pollard said in a direct stab at key partner Foxtel “[Our target] is the entire rest of the market that doesn’t currently get pay TV,”

When this failed and very few of their customers took up the Telstra Roku streaming service, the carrier then moved onto Fetch TV in an effort to try an unseat Foxtel who have grown subscribers through innovation.

Why would Telstra not take advantage of the 35% of Foxtel Group who last week rolled out a new streaming platform called Hubbl claimed one major retailer at last week’s Hubbl launch in Sydney.

This platform is seen as cutting edge, because it was developed in partnership with the world’s biggest communications and entertainment Companies Comcast, who own Sky in the UK, NBC Universal, the Peacock streaming platform and DreamWorks SKG, which was founded in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen who are often referred to as Hollywood Royalty.

They are also the biggest communication and entertainment Company in the USA.

Hubbl has secured 18 partners ahead of its launch, including global giants Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video who are also available on Fetch.

The Hubbl technology allows their platform’s partners to ­effectively showcase their content in one place, with consumers only having to log into the app once, with the streamed paid for content mixed with free to content on a continuous basis.

YouTube, Apple TV+ and Paramount+ have already signed on to the platform, as have local streaming apps Kayo Sports, Stan, BINGE, Optus Sport and Flash, and popular local free streaming apps ABC iView and ABC Kids, SBS On Demand, 7plus, 9Now and 10 Play.

Stan, Paramount+ and Optus Sport which is on the Fetch TV platform will ­officially move to the Hubble platform shortly, because as one Nine Entertainment executive who is also a competitor to Foxtel said, “It’s a great platform and we need to be there to drive traffic”.

The Telstra owned operating system is currently in development via Fetch TV which is part Malaysian owned.

CEO Scott Lorson (seen below) revealed the development of Telstra Fetch TV OS, during the recent Federal the Senate, Environment and Communications Legislation Committee questing, of TV and streaming industry executives last week in Canberra.

“We are developing a Fetch TV OS” Lorson said.

When ChannelNews caught up with Lorson later, in an effort to get an understanding of how the Telstra funded Fetch TV operating system on a TV will work, and more so which TV brands will use the OS, he said “We are currently in discussions with TV manufacturers”.

He refused to name any of the TV manufacturers that Fetch are in discussions with.

When Astro Holdings a Malaysian Company sold 51% of their Australian operating system to Telstra Lorson said “The launch with Telstra, and pending migration of Telstra TV subscribers, is a seminal event for Fetch, allowing us to scale quickly and secure a strategic position in the platform ecosystem.

“With Telstra on board, we are now well positioned to expand our content partnerships, and to invest to win in adjacent markets such as TV operating systems.”

Kim Krogh Andersen, Telstra’s group executive of product and technology, claimed that the investment, bought a majority stake in Fetch to “further evolve the entertainment experience that we offer to our customers.”

Telstra who did not make a separate submission to the Federal Government Senate Inquiry into the streaming industry, appear to be letting Fetch TV management do all the running in their pitch to Government and that includes Fetch TV siding with the free to air TV networks who want the Federal Government to support a free run for the ABC, Ten Nine, SBS and Ten TV stations on competitors platforms such as Hubble and Foxtel.

Fetch TV management told Senate members via a written submission that they currently service 600,000 households with the business punting on the migration to Fetch of 800,000 Telstra TV customers.

What’s not known is how many of the 800,000 Telstra accounts are active.

In comparison Foxtel Group as of this month had 4.365 million subscribers of which 4.317 million are paid subscribers.

Recently the business reported a 4% jump in subscribers, for Kayo Sports, BINGE and Foxtel which between them now have 2.841 million subscribers.

Foxtel alone has 2.794 million paid, subscribers which was up 4% year-on-year.

The strength of these numbers coupled with the capability of the Hubbl platform which is able to deliver both free to air and streamed content has become a major threat to several of the TV operating systems and the Telstra owned Fetch TV.

Recently we revealed that retailers selling TVs with streaming OS platforms are now looking for a click of the revenues generated from streaming apps.

Last week the world’s biggest retailer Walmart acquired US TV brand VISIO who has their own TV operating system.

Key to the Fetch business is their relationship with other ISP partners other than Telstra, they include TPG / iiNet, Optus, Vocus, and Aussie Broadband.

ChannelNews understands that the Foxtel Group is in discussions with these ISP partners, who if they adopt Hubble over Fetch TVs offering, could leave Telstra looking for a new audience for their Fetch TV boxes and their new TV OS.

The big question is which TV Companies would invest in a Telstra Fetch TV OS, considering the bulk of mainstream TV manufacturers either have, their own operating system or are already aligned with the likes of Google TV or Android TV which is used by both Sony and TCL, while Hisense use their Chinese house brand developed VIDAA, operating system.

Samsung has their Tizen OS which is also available on several other TV manufacturers products including Linsar, Bauhn and Polaroid TVs while LG has their Web OS which is also used by 200 TV and set top box operators worldwide.

Last year as Telstra was acquiring 51% of Fetch TV, LG was launching their global WebOS TV platform to third-party TV manufacturers who Telstra now appear to be going after for their yet to be launch Fetch TV OS.

Among the 200 partner brands, are several who have already built the LG OS into TVs sold at retailers such as The Good Guys, Aldi and Harvey Norman as well as Australia’s largest retailer of TV’s JB Hi Fi.

Fetch was launched in 2008 by Malaysian firm Astro, today they sell internet-connected set-top boxes.

Foxtel Group is 65% owned by News Corp.