We are officially living in Bizarro World. This week, both Netflix and Stan jacked up their pricing, with some customers forced to pay 20 per cent more per month. Meanwhile, the newly-christened Foxtel Now starts at just $10, which makes it the cheapest HD option of the bunch. What the hell is going on?
Foxtel has always been prohibitively expensive – to the point that many analysts predicted its complete and total destruction in the wake of Netflix’s launch. Instead, the company has been slowly reinventing itself as an affordable streaming platform via a succession of incremental price drops.
This week, Netflix and Stan both increased their pricing across all tiers. As a result, Foxtel now offers the cheapest streaming plan for people who want HD. No, really. Here’s how the new monthly pricing breaks down:
| Foxtel Now | Netflix | Stan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $10 | $13.99 | $12 |
| Max resolution | 1080p | 1080p | 1080p |
| Number of simultaneous streams | 2 | 2 | 3 |
It’s worth noting that Stan and Netflix give you access to their entire catalogue, whereas Foxtel breaks its library into different packs. (To get Game Of Thrones, you need to purchase the $15 Pop pack, for example.) Also of note: Stan provides three simultaneous streams per account compared to Netflix and Foxtel’s two, which is handy for larger households.
With that said, Foxtel Now’s entry-level packs still contain tons of content and they’re all dedicated to specific genres, which may be a bonus to some people. The $10 Doco Pack, for example, provides hundreds of documentaries from the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo People, Discovery Science, Animal Planet, BBC Knowledge, the History Channel and more.
Similarly, the Lifestyle pack is entirely dedicated to food, home, entertainment and reality TV shows from Australia and abroad. In short: you get less variety but lots more curated content.
Obviously, if you prefer to have lots of genres to choose from, Stan and Netflix remain a better deal even at this new price point. But for anyone who wants to save a few bucks and has very particular tastes, Foxtel Now is surprisingly great value. Who’d have thunk it?
Comments
4 responses to “Somehow, Foxtel Just Became The Cheapest HD Streaming Service In Australia”
Yes cheap if we want the same content as alot of free (or cheap services)
You have to pay extra for the good content, which you dont have to do on any of the other stream services
if you want all the packages, its over $100 a month
Foxtel please when are you going to be in the world of the living.
You are not the cheapest and far from it as both Netflex and Stan offer more content for the subscription paid.
Agreed, If I want HD sport only it is $65 and then add other content and its well over $100
Go Netflex and Stan best bang for your buck.
Foxtel worst bang for your buck but if you like your sport where can you go NO WHERE
Bizarro would be if it was worth $10
Problem is foxtel now still offers packages where the rest of the services are one price for everything
Netflix’ 720 option will be $9.99 won’t it? Cheaper than Foxtel’s single channel offering?
Lol yeah but it’s Foxtel. The company with the worst staff retention rate I’ve ever seen.
So, can I now get the only channel I’m interested in (Motorsport) for $10? No? Ok nothing new to see here then…
Their $10 packs are terrible. Their $15 packs are OK because they include Showcase but that’s still more expensive than Netflix with far less content and inferior quality delivery. If you actually think Foxtel represents great value, that is very much a minority opinion.
Easy to be cheapest when you offer the least amount of good content. Netflix is at least worth the money. To get the same amount of content you need to buy several packages with foxtel.
“Hi sir, My car is cheaper than a commodore!”
“But its only 4 wheels?”
“Oh you want a full car? Then youll have to purchase the monthly bodywork package, the engine package, The list goes on”
In a house hold that has All streaming services, netflix still presents the best value. Also Foxtel Now/play their on demand/anytime streaming (all but movies) HAS A TONNE of ADS!!! Seriously, progressively got worse in the last few tears
i was reading some comments on Reddit about Netflix’s price increase, it seems we are now paying as much as the US (with currency conversion) with half the content. with this being the case, im feeling ok to now start using the US netflix service via vpn (which i already pay for, for various uses), which i have not done until now.
Any hints as to a suitable VPN provider? Thanks
Not sure of quality, but this was posted today.
https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/07/deals-a-secure-fast-vpn-for-free/
“They also give you access to their entire catalogue, whereas Foxtel breaks its library into different packs. (To get Game Of Thrones, you need to purchase the $15 Pop pack, for example.)”
Ergo, Foxtel is still more expensive given their use of the archaic “Bundle” pricing. The title should probably read, “Somehow, Foxtel Don’t Understand VOD Pricing”.
I’m not giving Foxtel $25+ for a single show – I’d rather send it directly to HBO.
I know technically it is HD, but can we stop pretending that it’s acceptable to say it’s HD streaming when it’s only 720.
Seriously people, we are in the 4K age now.
I’m guessing the quality of the app is still trash? They can rebrand that turd all they want, it’s complete garbage. I had free access to it and still wouldn’t use it.