Signing Up for Every Streaming Service in Australia Costs More Than You Think

Signing Up for Every Streaming Service in Australia Costs More Than You Think
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There’s no denying Australia’s streaming market has gotten a whole lot more crowded over the years. While each streaming service isn’t that expensive individually, once you bundle up all the options, it gets pretty ridiculous. For anyone wanting a piece of all the content all the time, that’s very bad news.

There are seven primary streaming services in Australia right now: Netflix, Stan, Binge, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and Paramount+.

But that’s not all. In addition to all of the above, there are smaller, more niche services like Hayu, Shudder, Britbox and YouTube Premium — all of which contain unique programming as well.

In the interest of public service journalism, we decided to crunch the numbers for you in order to better understand what it’ll cost to subscribe to every streaming service in Australia. (Spoiler: It’s a lot.)

How much do the main streaming services cost in Australia?

The witcher recap
Image: Netflix

Let’s say you want to join all the major services at the cheapest price available.

A Netflix Basic with Ads account is $6.99 per month (the Basic tier without ads has been removed for Australia), Stan and Binge start at $10, Disney+’s price is $13.99, and Amazon Prime Video is $9.99. That’s $50.97 per month. Adding in Apple TV+ for $12.99 (after the recent price increase) will bring the total up to $63.96.

So, it’s nearly $64 per month to join each service at the basic level if you want to watch content for days.

If you want to introduce Paramount+ into the fold, that’ll set you back an additional $9.99 each month. This brings the grand total to $73.95 – yikes.

Those basic subscriptions on Stan, Binge and Netflix, however, only let you use a single screen at once, and a few of them don’t even come with basic HD, which is a pretty average offering. It also means you’ll be dealing with ads on Netflix. You’ll likely want to upgrade.

Bumping up Netflix, Binge and Stan to the mid-tier level offering ($16.99, $16 and $18, respectively) will bring you to $97.95. 

And if you want all the bells and whistles?

Image: HBO/Binge

For the sake of this example, let’s take a look at the premium subscriptions for every one of the main services. What would that cost?

Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV and Paramount+ remain the same. Netflix jumps to $22.99 (and don’t forget you’ll have to pay more if you want to share your account with others), Binge moves to $22 and Stan increases to $21 per month. If you’d like Stan Sport too, that’s another $15.

That, including all other streaming services mentioned above, leaves us at $127.95 every month.

You can shave off a couple of dollars (literally $2.32 per month) by signing up for Disney+ at an annual rate of $139.99. Prime Video also offers an annual subscription price of $79 a year (which saves $40.88 over a year) and Paramount+’s annual price of $89.99 saves you $29.89 a year.

Adding to this bundle again is the option to sign up for Prime Video Channels on Amazon Prime, which gives you 12 optional channels, all with additional costs.

Prime Video Channels includes Paramount+($8.99/month), hayu ($6.99/month), Britbox ($8.99/month), Rialto ($3.99/month), Acorn TV ($6.99/month), Shudder ($6.99/month), OUTtv ($3.99/month), DocPlay ($7.99/month) and more.

All the above totals out at $54.92. But there are double-ups between some of the Prime Video Channels and popular streaming services we’ve already included in this list, like Paramount+. So, for the sake of simplicity, we’ve taken those out of the sum here.

How much do the other streaming services cost?

swoop nbn plan deals
Image: Disney

That’s just the major streaming options.

Hayu is $6.99, Shudder is $6.99 per month, Crunchyroll starts at $10.99 (up to $13.99) and YouTube Premium is $13.99.

Getting even more niche, there’s also Acorn TV at $6.99, DocPlay at $7.99, iwonder at $6.99 and British comedy and drama streaming service BritBox is $8.99 per month.

Let’s say you want a dosage of reality TV with Hayu, some horror titles with Shudder, anime favourites on Crunchyroll, British television on Acorn TV and Britbox, YouTube’s best offerings with Premium and you choose one of the documentary services, DocPlay. You’ll basically be securing yourself access to a whole lot more than you could ever possibly chew on.

All of that costs $62.93.

Let’s add that to our exorbitant figure ($127.95), and you’ll have yourself a monthly bill of $190.88. Tack on a Foxtel subscription with bundles ranging from $72 to $140 per month and you’re looking at anywhere between $262.88 and $330 per month. (If our brains haven’t exploded from the math at this point).

Feels reminiscent of the days of cable television, and then some, doesn’t it?

There are others not included in this list because there is simply too much to take into account these days. Various sports subscriptions will also jack up the price, as a start. The point is there’s a lot out there, and that figure will only rise as more options are introduced into Australia.

We’re getting more content than ever before, but as we start reaching similar costs to cable TV prices, have we lost the point of introducing affordable streaming in the first place? Share your thoughts in the comments.

This article has been updated with the latest round of streaming services to be introduced in Australia.

Lead Image Credit: Netflix/Stan/Prime Video/Binge


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At Lifehacker, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

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