+ LAUNCH OF MUST-SEE STREAMING SERVICE

Cheap as chips platform to shake up TV’s digital database

WITH forecasts for streaming services in Australia to double over the next three years, its newest player Binge is hoping to crash the party — offering more than 10,000 hours of entertainment, from just $10 a month.

The affordable platform — which goes live on Monday — is a stunning new extension from the Foxtel group, which enjoyed success with its similar sports programming app Kayo when it launched two years ago.

The new offering will chase a younger audience of digital natives, with a slate of exclusive entertainment titles, as well as a back catalogue of cult classics.

Binge chief executive Julian Ogrin said recent programming deals with international studios, including WarnerMedia and HBO especially, would set a high standard for the kind of content new streamers should expect.

“Binge speaks to the heart of what great entertainment is about … something that is so good, you can’t switch off.

“Binge will provide permission to indulge in the shows you love and the shows you can’t get enough of,” he said, adding its new tagline was “entertainment that’s unturnoffable”.

Learning lessons after launching Kayo, Mr Ogrin said the Binge customer experience had been informed by two years of research and just under a year of design, testing and production, to curate what digital TV viewers want when streaming.

As the pandemic and global quarantining continues to drive up interest in TV and films at home, Mr Ogrin said launching in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis could have its rewards.

“In all our planning, it really comes back to the opportunity we see and the research and forecast we see into the (streaming) market, which means we have between four and five million users established in the Australian market today,” he said.

“The existing brands (like Netflix, Stan, Amazon Prime, Apple and Disney+) have done all the hard work around educating people in the streaming video on demand experience.

“We expect that market to double in the next three years … to come in and piggyback off that established market and capture that growth with an amazing product, content and brand is why we’re here.”

While Kayo has taken a hit to its 443,000-strong subscriber base — as belt-tightening job seekers shelved the expense when live sport was sidelined — Mr Ogrin expects most fans to return when competitions resume.

“We are playing to the heart of the streaming generation, who want to be in control,” he said.

“That’s what Binge is all about.”