People who want Foxtel but can't get cable and who use the internet in a specific way might be interested.

Foxtel has launched its long-awaited triple play bundle of Pay-TV, Phone and Broadband services, but its pricing and rules leave a lot to be desired.

Foxtel signalled last year that it would start offering a triple play offering to Australian consumers in 2015, encompassing its existing subscription TV services, phone line and broadband provision utilising Telstra's existing networks.

From a corporate viewpoint, this would be very familiar territory for News Ltd, as its UK Foxtel equivalent, Sky, has offered triple play bundles for some time now.

Foxtel's pitch for its bundles rests on promises of convenience and "greater value" (as per Foxtel's press release) to consumers. But how true is that?

In straight pricing terms, Foxtel is introducing four bundles for either existing Foxtel customers, or those who want to take up a services, with a range of 50/100/200/500GB of data for $65/70/$80/$100 extra for existing customers, or a minimum of $90/$95/$105/$125 for the entry level Foxtel bundle if you're a new customer.

Foxtel is reselling Telstra capacity on its ADSL networks. This has some interesting consequences. For Foxtel, it means it can boast of wide network coverage and availability out of the gate, as well as the ability to offer bundle packages with the added bonus of quota-free Foxtel internet services - Foxtel Play, Go and Presto - while on a bundle. I'll get back to that, because it's an interesting early play for Foxtel to make.

The issue for Foxtel is that while many potential customers are in ADSL zones, it leaves any Foxtel customer on a cable connection with no bundle options to speak of. And seeing that many of Foxtel's most lucrative customers will already be using cable connections - which offer the usually much faster cable internet - why would anyone want to bust down to ADSL? Foxtel says it plans to offer NBN connections "later this year," but the timetable for the HFC cable that connects a fair proportion of its audience is more likely to see NBN-labelled cable services in 2016, and the number of connections that'll work over a FTTP or FTTN NBN connection will be low in this calendar year.

What about the value proposition? Here again Foxtel is in an interesting position. If you compare Foxtel's offerings directly with Telstra's on the same network, you see the same packages - 50/100/200/500GB plus calls and Foxtel's own Pay-TV networks - and Foxtel initially looks quite competitive.

At Foxtel's cheapest broadband bundle for existing customers, a 24 month 50GB package would cost a minimum $1560 plus whatever you're already paying Foxtel, whereas the same data provision on a straight Telstra contract would be $1979 with slightly fewer calling inclusions and the same added whack of whatever you're paying Foxtel itself.

Which sounds grand in theory, until you take it out into the wider ADSL space. Foxtel's cheapest existing customer bundle sits at $65 per month with 50GB of data, but you don't have to look too far to get a lot more data included than that, even taking into consideration a hit of $20-$30 for line rental. The moment you jump up to the higher-end packages on Foxtel, you start hitting a large number of entirely unlimited ADSL packages from a variety of suppliers.

Of course, none of those suppliers can offer Foxtel as part of the bundle save Optus or Telstra, and that's no doubt going to be Foxtel's particular pitch for its broadband bundles, especially given that additional perk of not counting data on Foxtel's own internet-delivered platforms, covering Foxtel Play, Foxtel Go and Presto.

Internet based streaming is going to explode in 2015 with the recent launches of Channel 9/Fairfax's Stan and Foxtel's addition of TV content to Presto, as well as the upcoming launch of Netflix Australia. Subscription services offer a lot of telly for a relatively-low price, but the hidden cost within them is the data cost of each and every program. If you're on a very high or unlimited data bundle this isn't going to be so much of an issue, but those on smaller bundles could burn through a 50GB quota quite quickly without realising it. Keeping its own content quota-free encourages use (which keeps you interested in Foxtel's entire package) and gives it a first-mover advantage in this space. It'll be fascinating to see if other ISPs start offering Stan, Quickflix or Netflix quota free in order to compete.

Foxtel's broadband terms and conditions are also quite specific and in some cases punitive. Most people don't bother reading T&Cs in any case, and many do cover ISPs in ways that you might not think of, but there's usually some scope for interpretation; it's interesting to put Foxtel's broadband terms up against Telstra's, for example, especially as Foxtel's broadband service prohibits you from using the service "for any commercial purpose."

The appeal of this kind of triple play service rests in convenience, in the same way that the big telcos and some ISPs offer straight phone and internet bundles, because you only have to deal with the one bill. Still, it's hard to look at Foxtel's broadband bundles and not think that they're really only applicable to a relatively niche customer base.

You've got to be sure you're getting "value" (a nebulous concept in TV-land, because what I like to watch might not be your cup of tea) out of a Foxtel subscription in the first place, then want to stream a lot of that same content in a quota free way and be an ADSL customer with few better options available to you. Is that really a huge market?

Alex Kidman is a freelance technology writer; follow him on Twitter @alexkidman.