Late last year, Foxtel announced plans to expand its Presto streaming service to include TV as well as movies — a clear attempt to make its mark before the launch of Netflix and Stan. Overnight, Foxtel has quietly launched the service — so what does it cost and what do you get?
Presto will now be offered in three flavours. You can get Presto Movies for $9.99 a month, Presto TV for $9.99 a month, or a bundle with both for $14.99. There’s no contract, so you can opt in and out as you wish.
That’s quite expensive compared to its rivals. Stan will cost $10 a month; Netflix hasn’t announced local pricing, but most observers expect its $US7.99 a month price to be translated to $9.99 locally. Both Netflix and Stan include movies and TV.
The range of TV is not particularly impressive. These are the shows Presto has complete runs of according to its own site:
- The Sopranos
- Always Greener
- Entourage
- The Borgias
- Spirited
- Rosemary And Thyme
- Frasier
- Deadwood
- Slide
- City Homicide
This list appears to be incomplete, since some other shows (such as Packed To The Rafters) are also offered in their entirety. Presto TV is a partnership with TV network Seven; other Seven content on offer includes Bringing Sexy Back and Border Security: International, but the network’s biggest shows, such as Home & Away, are mostly conspicuous by their absence. The content is sorted into seven genres — Premium Drama, Local Drama, Comedy, Kids, Reality, Dramedy and Mini-Series & Specials — but many shows are listed in more than one category.
One other quirk: while Presto is available for Windows, Mac, Chromecast and tablets, right now TV only works on iOS, not Android.
We won’t know for sure how competitive this is until Stan launches next month and Netflix unveils its Australian line-up in March, but right now this doesn’t seem super-compelling. What do you think?
[via Televised Revolution]
Comments
19 responses to “Foxtel’s Presto TV Streaming Is Overpriced And Lacking Content”
For that price/offering no thanks.
I tried the movie service.
Standard Def Only
Constant audio sync issues
So more $$ for a bit more content on an already sub par service – meh…..
I wasnt overly impressed. Some serious issues with video and audio playback. My phone (android) wasnt supported so would have to use a pc. Not a dealbreaker but meh.
The Aussie media providers just don’t get it do they.
I dont watch anything that the Aus free to air put on… All my tv shows are on HBO , AMC ect
I would not let them pay me to watch the entire series of packed to the rafters or home and away
Also no HD is a deal breaker no matter what content you have
Presto HD:
https://community.presto.com.au/t5/Announcements-Updates/Community-Update-HD-testing-on-Presto/m-p/17339/highlight/true#/M194
I made this comment in Jan and they are only just rolling out HD on ‘Selected’ programs. I’ll stick to Netflix and Stan.
Once again it just proves the point how out of Touch Foxtel is (and now 7)
Poor selection of product that is over priced and under specced.
Once again Foxtel fails, and will go and bitch to Uncle Tony how the nasty Pirates are still not spending money with them.
And with 7’s “Big Shows” like Bringing sexy and Home & away being absent, who cares?!?
If these shows are the heavy hitters on 7, then the free to air TV industry really has more to worry about.
Free to Air TV is rubbish!
This is obviously just Foxtel trying to beat the availability argument against piracy, while also trying to get in before Stan and Netflix.
The only shows they have up are what’s on free to air? Why would people pay to watch what is already free in their house and who even watches those shows anyway? Housewives? The shows people want to watch are the ones they don’t want to stream in Presto because that would mean losing their ratings with TV/Foxtel.
Standard definition is ridiculous in this age. The option must be there… People with a 1080p monitor, which I’m sure is the vast majority, would have a really crappy time watching SD content fullscreen.
To be honest, I’m sure the majority of Australians don’t have the internet connection to stream full HD movies and shows without hickups, and quite a lot of those who do wouldn’t have the quota to binge (unless certain ISPs like Telstra don’t count Presto services to the quota), but how is 720p not available?
Nobody will use this service, Foxtel will use this towards the piracy and availability argument and then they’ll probably complain that it’s too hard to compete with Stan and Netflix, assuming they live up to our expectations.
The bandwidth required for HD Netflix is only 3mbps. This is not as high quality as some other offerings, of course, but is well below the average broadband speed in Oz.
That’s better than I was expecting. I haven’t actually used Netflix or similar so I’m not sure how their compression and video quality is. All the more reason to include HD streaming in the service! Are they cheaping out on bandwidth costs for higher bitrate videos and/or cheaping out on storage of larger file sizes? If so then it’s just another reason they’re doomed to fail.
This looks like Foxtel (Newscorp’s) panicky attempt to stem the bleeding from the inpending dagger. Too little too late. The TV content is laughable.
It’s disappointing that they avoided adding the parts of HBO people want – Veep, Game of Thrones, The Newsroom. Foxtel need to come to grips that a lot of people will never use Foxtel Go/Play.
The Newsroom is on Presto TV.
Go netflix (US) people! don’t waste your time with foxtel.
Local provider Quickflix is $9.99 per month and can be streamed across all mobile and gaming devices
Yeah but all of their decent movies and tv shows arent included in the basic $9.99 streaming cost are they ?
I think you have to pay to hire the new release stuff
Foxtel don’t get the opportunities for streaming services at all. They dont seem to be worried about whats on the horizon as more and more people opt in for Hi Speed NBN. I was signed up for their Foxtel Play service via my PS3 but $25 a month for crap channels was too much. Normal Foxtel service gives you 40+ channels for the same price and they have to provide the equipment?
News dot com.au has a story about Presto with the headline “Foxtel’s Netflix Killer”, really, this would be flatout giving Netflix Indigestion at the best….