Australian streaming service roundup

SO MANY SERVICES, SO MANY TV SHOWS…

THERE’S NEVER BEEN a better time to watch TV. Never mind that the quality and diversity of programming has improved considerably, or that technology advances have brought amazing screens into our living rooms; the most important innovation of all is the sheer amount of video content we can access over the Internet – either for free or for a modest monthly sum.

Subscription services like Netflix have dragged the commercial broadcasters kicking and screaming into the modern age, and viewers at home are the winners. With eyeballs diminishing and lucrative advertising revenue in jeopardy, the free-to-air networks have had to step up their game and join the digital revolution, with the end result that you can now watch almost any free-to-air programming over the internet (either live or on demand) through the catch-up TV services offered by ABC, SBS, 7, 9, and 10.

But you don’t get something for nothing. While the catch-up services are free, you’re ‘paying’ for the content by having to watch the ads that you can’t fast forward through. Thankfully, these ads run for shorter durations than you get with terrestrial broadcasts, and you can see where the ad breaks are on the timeline (and hence schedule your toilet and snack breaks accordingly.

Of course, you’ll get a lot more content if you pay for it with cold hard cash, and the great news is that subscription services – which you can start and stop on a month by month basis – offer excellent value for money. Say you never got around to watching the final season of Lost. You could buy the physical box set at JB Hi-Fi for $24.95, buy the entire season on iTunes for $29.99, or you could stream it all on Stan (in addition to all the other content there) for only $10 a month. Granted, you won’t own the content, but how likely are you to re-watch the show once you’ve seen it?