Parting shot: my messy breakup with Foxtel

Foxtel, Iām leaving you.
Itās not you, itās me. No, wait, it is you.
Youāre so prohibitive. If I want to watch one thing, you exclude another. You wonātĀ let me select individual channels and pay an appropriate fee for the services I use.
Instead, you charge top dollar for a subscription package that includes Peruvian llama races, documentaries on how to grow basil in a spaceship and other obscure programmes I will never watch. All so I can access the three or four channels I actually enjoy.
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Then thereās the whopping $100 monthly fee on your complete service. Even then, you attempt to entice me with pay-per-view extras and movie subscriptions.
Presto for $20 a month? Gold-digger!
Itās time to put myself back on the market. And Iām hot property.
Iāve been on a date with Netflix, and sheās thinking about moving to Australia to be with me forever. Quickflix has been sending me love letters. Iāve been flirting with Chromecast and a friend told me Apple TV has a thing for me.
Itās not like you need my love anyway. You have 2.6 million other admirers trapped under your thumb in lock-in contracts.
Things havenāt been the same since the Game of Thrones debacle. You know how much I love that series, but you refused to make it easy for me.
After navigating the āupgrade your packageā minefield, emerging with a migraine and dozens of superfluous channels, I finally discovered it would cost me a cool $25 a month extra for that one hour of pleasure per week. Iām not made of money.
We see the same friends every day: Leonard, Sheldon, Howard and Raj; Homer and Marge; Frasier; Jerry, George and Elaine.
But I need some spontaneity in my life. I want to meet other people. Donāt even think of suggesting we catch up with Will and Grace again!
Please donāt cry ā it wasnāt all bad. We had some good times, didnāt we?
Remember cuddling up together with a glass of red on a chilly winter evening to watch the Super Rugby? What about when you used to get a bit naughty and wake me up on a work night to watch the Test matches in South Africa? I was always tired the next day, but it was worth it.
Unfortunately, those moments were few and far between.
I canāt live like this. Iām the only one making an effort while you just take and take. Nothing you can offer me is worth $100 a month.
Youāre rigid, out-dated, overpriced and so very, very boring.Ā There are thousands who agree with me, yet only one in ten subscribers cut ties with you last year.
You call it āchurnā, I call it breaking free from the shackles of a faulty, one-sided relationship.
So as I bid you adieu, I offer you this piece of advice: move with the times and donāt take us for granted.
Fail to heed this warning and you might find yourself very lonely one day.
There are plenty more TV fish in the ever-expanding digital sea.
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