Binge ready to tempt
Deep dive into plenty of US seasons from $10 - $18 per month.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under Streaming, Subscription, Top Stories, Video
- Drama, Lifestyle, Reality & Movies all ad-free
- $10 (1 stream, SD), $14 (2 streams, HD) or $18 (4 streams, HD) per month
- 2 week free trial, no lock in contracts
- HBO, FX, NBCU, BBC, Sony titles
- Android TV, Apple TV, Telstra TV, Chromecast, Tablet, Mobile.
Australia’s newest streaming service Binge, will launch on Monday, 25 May with a starting price of $10 per month.
Offering “Unturnoffable” entertainment, it will screen more than 10,000 hours of ad-free curated content. Capitalising on a new deal with WarnerMedia, the service includes titles from HBO, NBCU, FX, BBC and Sony in Drama, Lifestyle, Reality & Movies.
They include seasons of Mrs. America, Succession, Westworld, Big Little Lies, Breeders, The Plot Against America, The Outsider, Chernobyl plus classics Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, The Office, Seinfeld and Friends.
New HBO Max titles coming soon include Gossip Girl (reboot), The Flight Attendant and Raised by Wolves.
As the title suggests the service is rich in US library titles and full seasons, plus select Australian titles. New titles which feature will screen weekly episodes, where available.
Binge is built around the success of the dedicated Sports streamer, Kayo, and similarly avoids all Foxtel branding.
Julian Ogrin, CEO of Binge said: “Binge speaks to the heart of what great entertainment viewing 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; it’s entertainment that’s ‘unturnoffable.’
“This is a next generation streaming service that we want to go beyond providing the best content by creating an emotional connection with viewers based on unapologetic entertainment pleasure, a place you can escape to for that precious ‘me time’. We couldn’t be more excited to pull the curtain back and show Australia this incredible product.
“The time is right to unleash this new service providing Australians with the best in drama, lifestyle, reality and movies. With an amazing line-up of entertainment from the world’s best brands, Binge will have something for everyone, whenever you want to watch, on your favourite device. And with new content added daily, there will always be something fresh to enjoy.”
“We have had time to observe and listen to what streamers want from their service. We know streamers can spend on average up to 10 minutes trying to find something to watch, with innovative features Binge will make the browsing experience easier, so all customers have to do is sit back and enjoy the shows and movies they want to watch,” he said.
But not all Foxtel titles will be available. While the service offers a feast of US titles there will be select Australian titles at launch such as Picnic at Hanging Rock and A Place to Call Home. Other flagship local titles, including Wentworth and Selling Houses Australia will not be available, which suggests Foxtel has made strategic decisions to retain unique content and minimise any cannibalising.
The service comes as Foxtel has laid off big numbers of staffing and faces mounting debt in a competitive landscape. But for viewers without a full Foxtel or Foxtel Now subscription, Binge looks to be a tempting offering.
Binge Launch Content Highlights
More than 10,000 hours of the best local and international content across premium drama, lifestyle, reality and movies.
• Many of the best and most talked about shows in the world right now including Succession, Westworld, Big Little Lies, Breeders, The Plot Against America, The Outsider and Mrs. America.
• All-time top-rated TV shows, including 6 of the top 10 (according to IMDb): Chernobyl, The Wire, Band of Brothers, Planet Earth I and II and Blue Planet II.
• All-time favourite dramas and comedies like Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, The Office, Seinfeld, Modern Family and The Walking Dead.
• An extensive collection of the world’s biggest movies including the Fast & Furious, Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible and DC Universe collections. Plus all-time great movies from directors like Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.
• Acclaimed documentaries including David Attenborough’s Frozen Planet, reality including Real Housewives and Keeping Up with the Kardashians and lifestyle favourites such as Grand Designs UK and Making It with Amy Poehler.
• New to Australia releases including Hugh Jackman starring in his latest hit Bad Education and in June, BBC’s White House Farm, a six-part factual drama based on real life events.
Binge has been built on a next generation technology platform with innovative features that will enhance the viewing experience including:
• Binge Centres – the place to find out more about the shows and movies, with behind the scenes interviews, footage and information.
• Binge Lists – users can save shows for later, rewatch a favourite or continue from where they left off.
• Discover – curated carousels powered by a team of experts, not just algorithms, to help users discover content by mood, theme, moments, Top 5’s and more.
New customers can sign up for a two-week free trial from Monday, 25 May at binge.com.au and be watching all the ad-free on demand Binge content on their favourite device with no lock in contracts.
Customers can choose from three pricing tiers starting at $10 per month (1 stream, SD), $14 per month (2 streams, HD) and $18 per month (4 streams, HD).
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- Tagged with A Place to Call Home, Big Little Lies, Breeders, Chernobyl, Friends, Game of Thrones, Gossip Girl, Mrs. America, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Raised by Wolves, Seinfeld, Selling Houses Australia, Succession, The Flight Attendant, The Office, The Outsider, The Plot Against America, The Sopranos, Wentworth, Westworld
65 Responses
No word if you can chromecast to a large TC?
Devices at top of page.
Thanks David need to go to SpecSavers!!
TV not TC
Will Foxtel be silly enough to run ad breaks on Binge with on-screen watermarks?
At least Netflix and Stan treat their viewers as viewers and not interrupt programming and graffiti the screen with marketing driven watermarks. Let’s see what Foxtel do with Binge. If they do, there will be nil interest in my house.
I can’t see why they would do that ,I don’t see any reason for them to do so.
This just appears to be a very basic service streaming shows that have already been on Foxtel!
Are they even the latest series of these shows or just some episodes or the first series. I would want to be sure you can watch every series of shows like Game of Thrones before signing up! Very little new content
Foxtel are trying to compete with Netflix, Stan and Amazon. Would be better off reducing prices on their Foxtel packages. Something like $25 to $30 per month for full package seems right considering what Netflix (shows & movies)& Kayo (live sport) combined cost!
This looks to me to be a soft launch ahead of HBO Max launching on May 27th in the USA and then once that happens more programs will flow through from that output deal. AT&T Warner wouldn’t really want any of their newer shows getting out online before the are out anywhere which is basically all of these Originals: tvguide.com/news/features/hbo-max-original-shows-movies-trailers-streaming-service/ which by early next year will number 50.
Which isn’t a bad idea if straight off the bat people take up the 14 day free trial and as they have it new titles get added from those HBO Max Originals debuting in the USA May 28th our time.
They have lost before enterring the battlefiels. This aint gonna work. Future is Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, DIsney
$14 for HD. Nope. That’s where they’ve lost me.
Going to be hard to get Stan or Netflix then as they charge the same price for HD $14, or SD for $10.
So… do you watch shows in SD on your Big HD ready, possibly 4K TV? Or… you’re more of an iPad/iPhone/Tablet, Small device kind of person and happy with pixalated programs?
So the same price as Netflix & Stan has lost you?
Pass. Nothing on here I want, except maybe Parks and Rec and I already own the DVDs.
Truthfully, nowadays, before I sign up, I want to see a complete list of what they have, even just to start with, before I part with my money. Although I suppose that’s what the two week free trial is for….
As others have said no Wentworth is a deal breaker for me.It’s my favourite show on Foxtel and I can’t go without it.I guess i’ll just have to stick with FoxNow instead.
They’re really not including some Foxtel Originals in the service? Not a great decision…
Otherwise looks like a great service. Very tempting to drop Foxtel for Kayo and Binge.
Binge is pretty much what I expected, the importance of the HBO deal was a make or break for this new Foxtel product, but other new shows will also be required.
All content should be in HD, minimum, offering SD will be unsatisfactory for 4K TV users, in fact the low bitrate 1080p streaming (also used by HBO) should also include HDR10 or Dolby Vision if Binge wants to lift its game with its competitors, but I doubt that is going to happen soon.
Binge marketing itself against Foxtel Now (which is doing much the same job) will be interesting to see.
So are the New eps of the Kardashians not going to be on E! anymore?
I believe so. Hayu and Foxtel.
Is E! on Foxtel Australian or still have US shows? As much as I don’t watch that particular show I’m keen to know how programming works as I know E! is a NBCU network…
What’s missing from the (more expensive) Foxtel Now service?
It’s the year 2020 and streaming services still expect us to pay extra for HD. Get in the sea!
That’s a better price point than I was expecting as I was working on HBO Max in the USA being USD$14.99 and that converting to AUD$22.93 so I thought $25.00, like Netflix, and Stan it may be one I drop in and out of as content I like is released.
Without Wentworth I’m not interested
Foxtel monopolised the payTV market and charged exhorbitant prices for their product compared to the rest of the world as there was no competition. And you still had advertisements even though you were paying for TV. Which is why I never got Foxtel. Now that there is competition at least they’re charging a better price with their new streaming service. My sister was paying 70 vucks a month or similar and she recently went to shut it down. Foxtel asked her to stay and she said she would if she paid 30 bucks a month only and they agreed so they charged her less than half for the same service because she stayed. I imagine Foxtel were losing customers to the streaming channels.
$14 for HD??? Get real.
It’s the same as Stan and Netflix, $10 on all those services for Basic package in SD and $14 for HD, glad they at least matched those services price wise.
Netflix is $13.99 for HD (2 screens); Stan is $14 for HD (3 screens).
Same as Netflix where Basic is $9.99 for SD and 1 Screen, Standard is $14.99 and 2 Streams, only difference is Premium at $19.99 gets you up to 4K with 4 Streams with Netflix rather than just HD and 4 Streams with Binge.
*Standard = HD
Same as its 2 main competitors Stan and Netflix. Will now come down to content and app quality but also no doubt some won’t consider because of their MDS.
So for $4 a month extra you get two screens and HD. Where as with IQ, you pay $15 for multi room via an app, and $10* for HD (if you don’t have movies or sport packs). I see something very wrong with the IQ packaging right here. No wonder Foxtel need to launch this service to try and save themselves.
Then that package probably isn’t for you. Quite a few still paying it though so they aren’t going to change their lazy person (standard) pricing until they have to. In the meantime, streaming options are available or you can negotiate a better price on traditional Foxtel by threatening to cancel. I’m paying about half standard pricing for this reason and plenty of others are doing the same.
Was really hoping that Binge would have “Wentworth” included … not so keen now 🙁 will probably just binge the 2 week trial & then cancel
I would love a streaming service to show some old shows in full series like LA Law, 30 something, moonlighting, the practice, Ally McBeal
OMG What is the point of this service? Seriously, I was happy to finally be able to play new episodes of Wentworth on my Apple TV, and of course they decide not to put it on the streamer.
I really really want to understand how they manage to continuously produce such poor platforms. From Foxtel boxes, to Go, Now, Kayo & Binge. Like at this point to watch different programs I’ll be using 4 different platforms. Hopefully they’ll be some free months through Telstra to make this worthwhile.
Will be hard to tell for sure until I do a trial, but it seems to look like they won’t be making available series that air weekly until perhaps the season has completed and then make it available to binge. I guess they have to still make Foxtel or FoxtelNow more enticing so they don’t lose subscribers from those avenues. Time will tell.
I did address this. If the title is on Binge and screening weekly from US, it will be weekly on Binge. Mrs America is a case in point. It drops with the first few already out and continues weekly. Just remember not every title on Foxtel is avail. It is curated.
Thanks David for confirming.
As an existing Foxtel subscriber I’m keen for the additional Warner content. Can’t see yet whether Binge will be available through the iq4, or whether the app will be made available free to existing subscribers.
HBO aside there seems to be a lot of crossover with titles available across Netflix, Stan and Amazon so until I get a better handle on what’s exclusive I’ll likely not bother… HBO make brilliant content and I really enjoy many of their programs but few of their shows do I go back and rewatch actually few shows at all do I go back and rewatch with exception of sitcoms. Will hold out as my $ are currently spent on Netflix, Stan and Hulu (sssh)
So far only thing I’m interested in is Barry. Looks like there won’t be any Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad or Futurama. Unless a lot more stuff that hasn’t been shown on TV or other streaming services a million times is added I’ll wait until season 3 of Barry is over and get the 2 week free trial and stick with Stan, Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Is there room for yet another streaming service?
I’ll stick to my Amazon Prime Video at only $3.99 per month via itunes.
Well there is still a lot of shows not available anywhere else like Castle, The Dukes of Hazard, The Drew Cary Show, Two Guys and a Girl, Green Acres, Get Smart, etc.
Get Smart is on Foxtel. Most of these services play the same damn shows over and over again(look at channel 11) even though there are thousands of shows to choose from
Pegasus, swap it over to the $60 annual fee at amazon and you get free prime shipping on all purchases via Amazon….same price and you get free shipping, amazon Music, amazonTwitch (Gaming) and a selection of kindle books to read
Not all purchases on Amazon have free shipping. Some aren’t Prime eligible and have normal shipping. International purchases that are Prime eligible required $49 spend for free shipping. Having said all that, it’s saves me hundreds on shipping every year so the $60 pays for itself and then some plus the streaming. Also sent a few things to the parents in law during lockdown with free shipping. They live regionally so shipping for them is extremely high normally. Haven’t looked at Twitch. Didn’t know it was a thing until last night.