Australian streaming services, revisited

WITH THE RECENT LAUNCH OF FOXTEL NOW, WE’VE PUT TOGETHER A RAPID-FIRE RUNDOWN OF ALL THE BIG-NAME VIDEO STREAMING SERVICES IN AUSTRALIA — AND ASSESSED WHETHER THEY’RE WORTH SUBSCRIBING TO.

IT HAS BEEN a while since we last took a look at the state of streaming services in Australia, and quite a bit has changed since we last did so. We thought it might be time to take another look at what’s available and what’s different.

AMAZON PRIME VIDEO

www.amazon.com Price: US$9 per month for video streaming Quick take: Not worth it until full Amazon Prime becomes available. It was just back in December that Amazon Prime Video launched globally, becoming available in 200 countries around the world. The full benefits of Amazon Prime (like the fast delivery, books and music) are not available to Australian users, but now, at least, we have legit access to Amazon Prime Video.

That said, it’s confusing as heck for Australian users to set up, with the whole ‘global’ thing clearly an afterthought on Amazon’s part. Monthly charges are in US dollars for a start, which is not made clear when you sign up. You have to go to amazon.

com rather than amazon.com.au to sign up. A 30-day trial is available, but you should be aware when you start the trial that Amazon will automatically sign you up for a subscription using your stored payment method, and the trial and automatic subscription is for the full Amazon Prime service, which you pay extra for and can’t even use.

If you can navigate this minefield, then you get access to a so-so television and movie streaming service. There are some true gems here, including original content from Amazon such as the excellent Man in the High Castle and Fortitude; but it’s mostly older movies (newer movies have to be rented individually) and a smattering of TV shows for which Amazon has acquired global rights. It’s messily arranged on both the web and mobile apps and doesn’t have nearly the same convenience features that Netflix does.

If the full Amazon Prime service were available here, then it might be a worthy subscription thanks to the value of the books and music. But for now, not worth it.

CRACKLE

www.crackle.com Price: Free Quick take: Hey, it’s free. And there’s some awesome stuff on there. An oft-forgotten streaming service, Sony’s Crackle is still somehow cracking on, providing a significant library of movies and TV shows for absolutely free. You don’t even have to create and account or sign in, though you can if you want some of the benefits like watch lists.

You won’t find many blockbuster TV shows or movies here, and a lot of the content is B-level at best or simply very old, but there are quite a few awesome classics to be found in there as well. It’s always worth exploring. Streaming is only in SD.

Quite simply, for the unbeatable price of ‘free’, it’s absolutely worth having Crackle bookmarked and the apps installed on your mobile and consoles.

FOXTEL NOW

now.foxtel.com.au Price: You purchase the packs you want. Livestyle: $10; Docos: $10; Kids: $10; Pop: $15; Drama: $15; Movies: $20; Sport: $29. Quick take: Tons of great stuff, including live TV and sport, but hella expensive. Rebranded and relaunched this year, Foxtel Now (formerly Foxtel Play) is the cable TV provider’s attempt to launch a proper

streaming service to compete with Netflix — without cutting into its profit margins.

Let’s start with the good. It now works like Netflix: you can casually sign up for your selected packages on a month-by-month basis. There are no contracts or nonsense to deal with: you picks your plan, you pay your money and you get instant access to the library, with the option to cancel at any time. A two-week trial is available, too.

The range of content is also excellent. Foxtel has significant amounts of original content and a library of licensed content that exceeds any other streaming provider in both depth and breadth. It can include live sport (yes, with actual live streaming) and lifestyle content, which is something no other streaming provider offers. If it’s on Foxtel cable, it’s probably available here.

But then we come to the cost. And it’s hefty — you’re still paying what are essentially cable TV prices for this. You purchase the service by packages, selecting just those packages you want. There are seven different packages, starting at $10 (for Lifestyle, Documentaries and Kids shows) going up to $29 (for sport). If you were to sign up for all, it would cost $104 per month, which is not exactly competitive with Stan or Netflix.

NETFLIX

netflix.com.au Price: $9 for one screen/SD; $14 for two screens/HD; $18 for four screens/ultra HD Quick take: A little worse for wear, but still the best value. By far, the largest streaming service by number of users, Netflix has arguably become slightly worse since its initial launch. For a start, there’s the recent price hike — which is not entirely Netflix’s fault as it was forced to start charging GST, but the price increase actually went further than a simple GST levy.

Then there’s the blocking of VPNs, which makes it harder to access the international library, which was once one of the major selling points of the service. There are still some VPN providers that can offer access to Netflix’s larger US library, but it can be a pain to find the right VPN server.

The library itself has actually diminished, both locally and in the US. Back when it was pretty much the only game in town, Netflix hoovered up rights to a huge number of movies and TV shows; but now competition has reduced the number of TV shows and movies on Netflix. Last year, for example, All Flicks reported that Netflix’s US library has shrunk from 6,494 movies in January 2014 to 4,335 movies in June 2016. That’s still a hell of a lot, but it’s getting smaller.

That said, Netflix still offers incredible value in its Australian and US libraries. It has a huge catalogue of movies and TV shows, many of which are available for streaming in 4K. It has excellent clients available for all major platforms, and a solid recommendation system. Plans are based on the number of screens watching simultaneously and supported resolution, and start at $10.

It also has an outstanding library of original titles in its arsenal. To counter its loss of third-party licences, Netflix has invested massively in original content, both movies and TV shows — such as the hugely popular Daredevil and The Get Down. There’s a lot of stuff here that you can’t legally get anywhere else, and for that alone, it’s still worth it.

STAN

www.stan.com.au Price: $10 for one screen/SD; $12 for three screens/ HD; $15 for four screens/ultra HD Quick take: A worthy rival/companion to Netflix. Excellent range of new licensed content, but not as much original content. Built on the Netflix model of low-price subscription, no ads and no lock-in contract, Stan is pretty much the last man standing after the other Netflix-alikes (QuickFlix and Presto) died. And it is still absolutely a solid competitor to Netflix. It’s currently more affordable, has a lot of the same features and a similarly sized library.

Arguably, its licensed third-party content is actually superior right now to that of Netflix. It’s bringing blockbuster movies and TV shows out at a rate that exceeds that of Netflix. However, it doesn’t have anything even slightly resembling Netflix’s original content library, and a lot of content on Stan might also be found on other streaming services.

Otherwise, it’s very much modelled on Netflix, with a similar pricing structure, clients for all major platforms that work pretty much just like the Netflix clients and a constantly rotating buffet of content. We doubt that too many people are going to choose Stan over Netflix, but as a supplement to it, Stan is fantastic and at least worth checking out the two-week trial — though, as with most trials such as these, you need to remember to cancel your subscription before they start charging you for your continued use.