Choice has lost the plot and is misleading Australians

Choice has for as long as most of us can remember been the go to brand representing the interests of Australian consumers, turn to them for advice on which devices or home appliances to choose for reliability, quality and price.  Sadly, they’ve lost the plot of late, and are misrepresenting a whole stack of data to consumers.

Today, Choice released a statement titled”376% MORE FOR THE SAME DIGITAL CONTENT IS THIS WHAT COMPETITION LOOKS LIKE?”

Their release went on to include a table “comparing” the price and availability of a couple of popular TV shows.
They compared the $9 monthly Netflix subscription cost to a $45 monthly Foxtel cost, and a $30.90 iTunes cost.

(Comparison table from Choice – Check the fine print!)

Seriously, could you get three more completely different things to compare?

Netflix is a library of content, they also have a couple of simply amazing series (Orange is the New Black, House of Cards) which they commissioned and made available to subscribers.  If you just wanted one show like House of Cards, you could sign up for one month and just watch 13 episodes then cancel your subscription.  But seriously, who’s doing that?   Also, Netflix isn’t even available in Australia without complex workarounds on your PC or network.

Foxtel is a Pay TV service, hundreds of channels, content available on-demand, plus – importantly – a bunch of Aussie made shows.

iTunes is as simple as it gets.  Buy the content.  Own the content.

Let’s do what Choice should have done, and compare apples with apples (pardon the pun).

Doctor Who, Series 8 – US iTunes Store:

Doctor Who, Series 8 – Australian iTunes Store:

Ahh, that’s Australians paying 0% more than America.

Lets find another popular show. The Walking Dead.

In the US iTunes Store:

The Aussie iTunes store:

That’s about a 16% price hike for Aussies – or Australia Tax as we apparently like to call it.

A long long way from the 376% Choice were claiming.

Seriously, talk about working for a headline – it’s just plan deceptive.

Foxtel today released a statement calling the Choice claims disingenuous and hypocritical.

When Netflix launches in Australia they won’t have all the shows that US subscribers get, the world is divided into regions and the people who spend millions making programs sell them to a load of different TV companies to make their money.   Likewise, Netflix won’t likely start making Aussie programs like our TV networks and even Foxtel do.

Look, I’m all for price comparisons, but let’s make them genuine and accurate.  Today’s release by Choice was simply crazy.

Oh, and when it comes to prices, the above comparison prove that it’s not “Apple” that add the Australia Tax – it’s a the people or company who own the local rights.  If they want a few extra dollars – take it up with them.