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Stan launches on Australia Day

Nine / Fairfax streaming service kicks off with a free one month trial from Monday.

2015-01-22_1823Nine / Fairfax streaming service Stan will launch on Australia Day, offering TV and movies for $10 a month.

The joint venture, which will compete for subscribers against other players including Presto, Netflix and Quickflix, will be available “in up to full HD on your TV or favourite device, including tablets and smartphones.”

It launches with a 30-day free trial.

Mike Sneesby, CEO of Stan, said: “We know there’s been some speculation around Stan’s launch date, and while we’ve had to keep it under wraps we’re really proud to be able to announce that Australia’s new streaming service will launch on Australia Day.”

Better Call Saul, the prequel to the award-winning Breaking Bad, will premiere on Monday, February 9, fast-tracked from the US.

Nine will present a special screening of the first two episodes of Transparent on Tuesday, January 27, at 10.00pm, ahead of the entire season available on Stan.

Mozart in the Jungle starring Malcolm McDowell, Saffron Burrows, Bernadette Peters, and Gael García Bernal, will also offer the entire season while Fargo’s first season will also available at launch.

Joining the lineup of exclusives will be an extensive range of award-winning TV shows including Masters of Sex, Hannibal, Ray Donovan, Californication, The Good Wife, Sherlock, Call the Midwife, Top Gear and Doctor Who. A selection of quality Australian programming will also be available on Stan, such as Ja’mie Private School Girl, Redfern Now and Rake, plus all seasons of Underbelly, House Husbands and Love Child.

On launch, the entire collection of James Bond films will be available as an SVOD exclusive, as well as recent releases including The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, plus more of the biggest film franchises including The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Robocop, Rambo and Terminator. Showcasing the best in international cinema, Stan will be the SVOD home of SBS World Movies, while award-winning Australian films such as Animal Kingdom will also join the movie lineup.

With something for everyone, Stan will have the biggest kids TV shows including Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Wiggles, In the Night Garden, Sarah and Duck, Charlie and Lola and iCarly. Stan’s dedicated kids zone will enable a safe and controlled viewing environment for kids, with the ability to set up individual profiles for everyone in the family based on classification.

All titles will be available to watch instantly in up to full HD on multiple platforms including television, tablets, computers and mobile phones.

25 Responses

  1. I thought Fargo S2 was exclusive to Stan?

    Netflix has the advantage that it’s app is already imbedded in all the game consols – Playstation etc.

    Hoping Stan get that carriage in place asap.

  2. Stan support says:-
    “At the moment Stan is available on your television via Chromecast and Apple TV. (The software that we use) Microsoft Silverlight is currently unsupported by Smart TV’s.”

    It’s your TV’s fault that you can’t use Stan!

    BTW, I believe that Netflix also uses Silverlight.

    The Chromecast stick is controlled by another device like a PC or Android tablet. There is a bright side, a coffee table full of remotes can be replaced by a single Android unit, sitting next to it’s charger.

  3. Thanks for answering David I’m glad it’s going to stay on SBS I love how SBS showing great content like masters of sex & Fargo but I got another question do you know when the flash or arrow going to air on channel 9

  4. Eastwest is correct. There will be too many SVOD providers for a market the size of Australia with a too fragmented library of shows. To get a good range of product subscribers would have to pay for all of the competing providers.
    No doubt despite the TV channels being owners or part owners, there will be an inevitable merging of companies or they will simply go out of business.

  5. So is masters of sex & Fargo not going to be on SBS anymore? Because shows like these belong on SBS & also with Presto & Stan does Australia think this is going to stop online piracy

  6. Have been binge watching Fargo on it for the past few hours, and am impressed so far. Very smooth experience, very smooth user interface, and the design is top notch. Quality is good, but I do have one peeve. With the ‘HD’ toggle, it’s hard to know when it’s enabled or disabled (one is blue, one is white. If they added the text “on” to the popup that comes on the screen, that would be handy). That and as far as HD goes, I’m guessing that it’s likely 720p tops (this seems consistent between tv and film).

    Selection is small, but decent, though I figure it’ll pick up steam in time. Not bad for $10.

  7. Saw the Stan app on the Play Store today and installed it on the Android device I use for Smart TV applications.

    Ran it. The message displayed (paraphrased) was “Your device is rooted – This app will only run on unrooted devices – Exit?”.

    I wasn’t even aware my cheap generic Android device was rooted. But since the app was so hostile it was quickly uninstalled. I guess it’s back to “other means” then …

    Come on guys – don’t do that! If you want people to use a legitmate service then it has to be smooth and friendly, and not treat the user and their device as the enemy.

  8. Using the Stan 30 free trial offer sent last Monday which was a pleasant surprise….something for nothing is always good
    Choice – better than what we have had legally in this country, allowing some binge catch up on programs watched and not watched in the past
    Quality – watching Fargo for the first time and very happy with image quality
    Functionality – password resets quick, up to 6 other devices, streaming via Apple TV to a large screen
    Summary – it’s a great addition to legal ways of viewing content in Australia. Too many of us seem to expect free content and forget that there are people trying to earn a living in the industry that rely on some form of income for their art

  9. Don’t why the Nine Cricket commentators keep promoting with Fargo as Stan’s hit show. SBS has shown the first season at least three times and featured so much on SBS on demand. So I’m pretty sure if people wanted to watch it they would of seen it by now.
    By the way, those commentators promoting the transgender show just seems wrong and not a good fit it all.

  10. I’ve just started using it today. I find Silverlight can be quite jerky, though the HD resolution looks quite good. However, I’ve used other free services that look better. Not everything is in HD. A movie I’ve been aching to see was not, so I gave up a couple of minutes into it. There’s a bunch of TV series I’ve been dying to watch but there are only a handful that have the complete series. It’s like you’re only paying for half a service. Glad I have it free for a month. Will likely binge watch a bunch of stuff and then use alternative methods to source what it’s missing.

  11. Channel 9 now have their cricket commentators promoting Stan during their cricket coverage. It’s bad enough when they promote nine shows during their coverage but it seems even more wrong for them to promote stan shows that aren’t on nine. Its not a good trend. By the way the commentators didn’t do a good job of promoting it.

  12. Dear Stan, Netflix AU, Presto etc etc. Once you all get your s%#@ sorted out and are able to deliver a large amount of non-gimped content at a reasonable worldwide price to any device without download limits then get back to me, until then you can burn your shareholders money up and do your dance of meaningless competition and takeovers but I’ll pass on this overpriced underwhelming offer thanks.

  13. I’ve just started the 30 day free trial of this serice,and it’s a bit underwhelming to be honest.It’s broadcast in high defnition,which is a bonus,and the picture quality is excellent.

    But the library content leaves a lot to be desired,unfortunately.There’s a lot of old tv shows i’ve alerady seen,and very little new content.The movie library is also very thin.As far as i could see The Hobbit movie was the only blockbuster from recent years in their collection.

    They will really need to beef up their movies collection if they want to hold onto subscibers like myself Iwho are trying out the free trial.

  14. @Perplexed – Ditto. Add ‘why can I get a cable internet connection’? (“No ports at the local exchange”. “When?” “Dunno”.)
    Then again, my local Council library has everything listed on DVD – for free.
    “On launch, the entire collection of James Bond films will be available as an SVOD exclusive”. Wow. Is this the same “entire collection” that 7, 9 & 10 have all ran, several times each – which the library has – for free?
    Is this what’s called ‘viewer fragmentation’ and ‘don’t watch FTA TV, watch Stan’?

  15. I was invited for a ‘sneak peak’ on Stan a few days ago, but I would guess that everyone who expressed interest got the same invite

    Anyone used it yet? Thoughts?

    Also, would be great if they could partner up with an ISP for unmetered data or priority traffic

  16. The Pic says it all!
    Should I move closer to the ‘phone tower?
    Haven’t I seen this show before?
    I still have to wait a week for the next episode?
    How long before they start inserting ads?
    Hmmm. $10 a day in mobile download charges!
    How can I get the kids off YouTube so it doesn’t buffer?
    Put the PVR on E-bay?
    Should I take Stan with me on the graveyard shift?

    I couldn’t resist!
    Where did all the other celebrities go?
    Is this sand message big enough?
    I got a drone-in-one with a 5 iron! Wonder if the battery would fit my phone?
    I’m stuck. What would MacGyver do? Maybe he’s on Stan?

  17. Presto doesn’t seem worth it because anything worth watching they will probably save for foxtel viewers. Stan seems to have hedged all its bets on one premier series not interested in. To subscribe to a service a viewer need more than one premier series. Netflix is wait and see.

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