Five years ago Australia had exactly zero subscription streaming services.
Now, with the announcement Disney+ will launch on November 19 (and Apple TV+ not far behind) there’s now TEN services you can sign up for, and each offer a point of difference designed to get you to sign up and spend your hard-earned entertainment dollars.
Each service offers some form of free trial, from 7-days to 14, to a full 30-day experience. All function with no contract—you sign up for a month and can cancel any time before the next charging day without penalty (leading some people to drop in and out of services to create their own a la carte entertainment experience).
There’s lots of conjecture over how much you could spend, though lining up a one-to-one comparison is a challenge. Are the number of simultaneous screens important to you? Then some services are better than others. Do you want 4K content? There’s a severe limiting factor on your choice. Want the biggest, widest library available for the best price? Well, that’s gonna come down to how deep your pockets are.
To help you wade through what’s available, TV Blackbox has collated what’s available to help you in an apples-to-apples comparison (all figures in $AUD)…
| SERVICE | COST (monthly) |
STREAMS | STANDARD | KEY TITLES |
| Netflix | $9.99 $13.99 $17.99 |
1 2 4 |
SD HD 4K |
Stranger Things The Good Place Mindhunter |
| Stan | $10 $14 $17 |
1 3 4 |
SD HD 4K |
Power RuPaul’s Drag Race The Loudest Voice |
| Amazon Prime Video | $6.99 ($59 annual) |
2 | SD, HD, 4K | The Boys The Grand Tour Marvelous Mrs Maisel |
| 10 All Access | $9.99 | 3 | SD, HD | The Twilight Zone Survivor US Why Women Kill |
| Hayu | $6.99 | 1 | SD, HD | Keeping Up With The Kardashians Real Housewives |
| YouTube Premium | $14.99 ($8.99 student) ($22.99 family) |
1 1 6 |
SD, HD | Cobra Kai Scare PewDiePie Ad-free YouTube |
| Fetch Ultimate Pack | $20 | 3* | SD, HD | BBC First MTV Movies, TV – rent/buy |
| Disney+ | $8.99 ($89.99 annual) |
4 | SD, HD, 4K | The Mandalorian Marvel, Pixar High School Musical series |
| Apple TV+ | ??? ($9.99**) |
1*** | SD, HD | Amazing Stories The Morning Show See |
| Kayo | $25 $35 |
2 3 |
SD, HD | All the sport |
| Foxtel Now | Starts at $25 | 5 | SD, HD | HBO content Wentworth Selling Houses Australia |
* Requires a Fetch Mighty or Mini; max 3 boxes shared; can connect phone/tablet for streamed channel viewing.
** Reported here, though published pre-Disney+ launch/pricing announcement; only available on Apple devices.
*** Locked to a single Apple ID but can be used on multiple devices where that ID is signed in.
If you were someone who wanted all the services except the Foxtel content, and it was just you and you were happy with only SD content, then you’re still up for a sizeable monthly payment (assuming both Disney+ and Apple TV+ have launched):
Netflix Basic ($9.99) + Stan Basic ($10) + Amazon Prime Video ($6.99) + 10 All Access ($9.99) + Hayu ($6.99) + YouTube Premium ($14.99) + Disney+ ($8.99) + Apple TV+ ($9.99) + Fetch Ultimate ($20) = $97.93/month.
Everyone in your family wanting to watch different things at the same time, but only want the name brands? Then you’ll be after up to 4 simultaneous streams, content in HD or 4K, and that still adds up pretty quickly:
Netflix Premium ($17.99) + Stan Premium ($17) + Amazon Prime Video ($6.99) + Disney+ ($8.99) + Apple TV+ ($9.99) + Foxtel Now ($25) + Kayo ($35) = $120.96/month.
If you’re after a “best bang for buck” scenario that isn’t going to cost you all the money however you want a good smattering of content and in HD, then perhaps this collection offers solid enough variety for you:
Netflix Standard ($13.99) + Stan Standard ($14) + Amazon Prime Video^ ($4.92) + Disney+^^ ($7.50) + Foxtel Now^^^ ($25) = $65.41/month.
^ Annual subscription $59 delivered as monthly payments.
^^ Annual subscription $89.99 delivered as monthly payments
^^^ Depending on your content needs, Foxtel Now could be swapped out for the Fetch Ultimate Pack, or dropped entirely.
There’s myriad combinations you could put together along with dropping in and out of services month to month as you watch the shows you want and leave once you’ve seen them. There’s also your specific requirements – you may not be interested in Disney+’s Marvel and Star Wars content, preferring instead the premium HBO drama on Foxtel Now; you may be sports mad and have tweens and teens and so multiple simultaneous streams and a Netflix/Kayo combo is a non-negotiable.
We’re in a brave new world when it comes to competition and accessing the content you want to want. The streaming entertainment arena has fractured and depending on your needs you may only need one or feel you have to subscribe to everything – it just comes down to who gets the valuable space on your credit card.
What are you subscribed to, what are you looking at dropping, and will you pick up either of Disney+ or Apple TV+ when they launch in Australia?
What’s your mix-and-match package of choice?
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I’m all for Disney Plus if includes the movies from the 60’s as I’ve read it would
It will be really interesting if they do include that content, Peter. No word from Disney if they intend to.
Really love Amazon Prime. Didn’t expect to find so many great titles on there, especially the Amazon originals. The Boys and Man in the High Castle were excellent. Netflix is patchy of late I feel.
It has been really exciting to see that library grow, hasn’t it Donni? The Boys is fabulous, and I loved the Jack Ryan stuff. Also The Tick.
Netflix are about to hit their straps with a whole bunch of new original content in the coming months, so hang on for the ride!
Cheers Steve. Also in terms of paid streamers, would you include Mubi, Docplay and iWonder?
Hi Danny – I wouldn’t, only because they tend to be more niche services. If we dive into that second tier of providers available in Australia the 10 streamers I talked about almost doubles!