For years, Foxtel has offered their vast range of shows, movies, sports and live channels for hassle-free streaming via Foxtel Now – a service which has plenty of subscribers who enjoy the hassle-free access to the best of what Foxtel has to offer. But for those looking for something a bit closer to Netflix and Stan than satellite TV, there’s some great news for you this week.
Foxtel-owned company Streamotion are the people behind the extraordinary success of next-generation sports streaming service Kayo Sports, which quickly grew its subscriber base to nearly half a million in just a few months. Designed as a kind of “Netflix for sport” it appealed to the type of viewer that feels more at home with looking for exactly what they want and playing it on demand (as well as live, in Kayo’s case) and enjoying the sorts of expanded features that modern streaming devices can deliver.
As Kayo took off, Streamotion was already at work on another new streaming offering – which, after well over a year in development, has been announced this week as BINGE.
A Bigger BINGE Than Expected
The groundwork for BINGE was laid just a few weeks ago when Foxtel announced it has sealed a renewed long-term deal with WarnerMedia, owners of HBO, that would also encompass new shows being made for the HBO Max streaming service in the US. That final crucial deal made sure that HBO’s legendary TV shows and movies would be available for streaming long-term, alongside the many other content deals that have been put in place over the past year or two.
The result is that BINGE – with its colourful Netflix-like interface – arrives loaded with some of the most desirable content on the planet. HBO’s premium content features heavily, as expected – with everything from classics (The Wire, The Sopranos) to acclaimed recent shows (Chernobyl, Big Little Lies). But beyond HBO, there’s a breadth of content on BINGE that looks hard to resist for any serious TV fan – and not just in drama, but across multiple genres. BINGE claims to have over 10,000 hours of content ready to go at launch, with more added every day. Some of the titles likely to grab attention include:
Comedy: Seinfeld, Veep, 30 Rock, The Office, Frasier, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Future Man
Premium Drama: Game of Thrones, Westworld, Succession, Watchmen, Devs, Barry, Castle Rock, Mrs America, His Dark Materials, Mr Robot, The Walking Dead, True Blood, The Knick, Ballers, Homeland, The Leftovers
Crime Drama: True Detective, The Night Of, NCIS, Law & Order, CSI, Elementary
Reality: Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Vanderpump Rules, Real Housewives, Project Runway, Shahs of Sunset
Lifestyle: Grand Designs, Million Dollar Listing, Nigella’s Kitchen, Tiny House Australia, Location Location
Documentaries: Planet Earth, Blue Planet, Dynasties, Earth From Space, Coast Australia, Watergate
Movies: 800 movies at launch, including Apocalypse Now, Inception, John Wick, The Conjuring, Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, This Is Spinal Tap, Bridesmaids, Pitch Perfect, Long Shot, The Dark Knight
HBO Max and More, Coming Soon
As well as the huge amount of content on BINGE at launch, coming in a few months will be a whole lot more via the new HBO Max deal, which will see classic shows like Friends and The Big Bang Theory move to a new home on BINGE, alongside brand new HBO Max originals, like The Flight Attendant (the much-anticipated new show starring The Big Bang Theory’s Kaley Cuoco).
BINGE will also have the latest DC Universe shows, including the brand new Stargirl which arrives shortly.
In many cases, the plan is to “fast track” episodes so they appear on BINGE right after they air in the US.
Modern Service, Modern Devices
In keeping with its fresh, content-rich on-demand look and feel, BINGE will launch on some of the most popular streaming devices around.
At launch it will be available on Apple TV (HD and 4K models), Telstra TV, Android TV devices including Sony smart TVs, with Samsung smart TV support on the way in the few months’ time. Also on the way is support for both Playstation 4 and Xbox One game consoles (and, presumably, their next-generation models due out at the end of this year).
On the portable device side of things, you’ll be able to binge on iOS and Android phones and tablets (iOS 12 and Android 6 are the stated minimums). Casting to Google’s popular Chromecast devices is also supported, though the original (stick-shaped) first-generation Chromecast is left out.
A Low-Cost Binge
With the vast array of content on offer – most of which has only previously been available by subscribing to Foxtel – the price for BINGE monthly subscriptions is going to surprise many people.
The entry-level plan (which only allows standard definition streaming on one screen at a time) is $10/month. For high definition and two screens, it’ll be $14/month (this is also the base plan if subscribing via the iTunes Store on Apple devices). A plan offering HD on four screens at once (great for families) is $18/month. A two-week free trial is offered for new subscribers, and with only 168 hours in a week, you’ll likely still have a lot left to binge to make you want to stick around!
Families and share houses using BINGE will be able to create user profiles as well, with a maximum of 6 per account available at launch, with BINGE intending to increase that limit after launch. Each user profile gets its own personalised recommendations and curated content.
Ready for Launch!
You can get your hands on all this BINGE-y goodness sooner than you’d expect – BINGE launches Monday, May 25th, and the company says the new-user sign-up process will be so easy and fast you can be getting your BINGE on within a minute or two. There’s nothing to lose – grab yourself a full two weeks of BINGE for absolutely free and check out everything they have to offer – and that’s a lot.