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Binge ready to tempt

Deep dive into plenty of US seasons from $10 - $18 per month.

  • 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).

65 Responses

  1. I knew it was going to be the case, but it’s so painfully American.
    What I like about Stan & Netflix is while it’s certainly mostly US content, you still do find decent chunks of other stuff on there as well, like European or Asian language films as well on those services.

  2. Perhaps I misinterpreted but I see Binge isn’t offering all the current HBO content like Run & This Much I Know is True. So is Foxtel still the primary broadcaster and Binge a repeat? I thought Binge would compete on a similar level to Stan & Netflix with new content.

    1. Hard to know… there is some stuff being held back for Foxtel… and some other stuff running new, such as Mrs. America. I’m told it is “curated” so it will vary from title to title. There’s certainly some commentary by readers around this question.

      1. I’ve also noticed some of the shows dropping episodes weekly, are an episode behind. Deliberate, to keep Foxtel premium, possibly? Will annoy people who want day and date though.

  3. Interesting it has linear channels as well (to browse what’s on offer to subscribers without logging in, type the URL, then add in this at the end: /shows).

  4. Why bother offering up a SD service?? And charging people $4 extra for HD – which has been been around for 15 years?? They dont get it…… still!

    1. So I guess by extension Netflix that has the same pricing don’t know what their doing either?
      The SD option is so you can advertise your product at $10 a month, Netflix hasn’t been $10 for years now if you want HD but everyone still assumes it is $10, clever marketing.

  5. its the same crap they have on foxtel nothing new it will fail for a start everything should be in hd no sd foxtel is a dinosaur and have millions in debt they should do full streaming

  6. I’ll only get it if they introduce 4k. I currently watch Stan, Netflix and Disney in 4k so why don’t Foxtel offer it on their $18 pack like their competitors?

    1. I agree Rachel, but it’s likely that Foxtel wants to keep its iQ4 4K business a going concern, especially its 4K sports channel.
      In reality the global cable/satellite Pay TV business is fast becoming obsolete.
      There’s also the matter of 4K content with Netflix way ahead of the competition there, I cant imagine that Binge will remain HD for years, especially with 8K perhaps only a year or two away, certain to be shown on Netflix once the AV1 video codec is sorted out.

  7. Gee what are the chances of Binge going out free to cable/satellite customers who already have access to the channels from which the shows on Binge come from eg showcase, Fox8? No AppleTV access for many years, and now Binge does…it would certainly remove some of the risk of Foxtel losing cable/satellite customers (who don’t have sport and never will, like me) to Binge, a much cheaper option.

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