Netflix, Stan and Presto battle for consumer dollars, but what’s the difference?
The official arrival of Netflix in Australia today fires the starting gun on what could be one of the biggest marketing wars this year. Miranda Ward runs the ruler over the new local offering and how it measures up the its US counterpart, as well as local players Stan and Presto.
Australians have never had so many options as to how they consume content – but for people looking to dip their toes in the video streaming waters the options are many and dazzling with many shows carried by more than one service, and all having different exclusive content.
I’ve been using the US version of Netflix for the last month, while I’ve also experimented with Stan and Presto. But which will consumers choose?
Question: do any of the platforms do sports? All I am really looking for is sports and movies. Best option?
I am a current Foxtel customer, paying about $70 per month!
@ confused human — you’re not going to get sport at $10/month
You must watch waaaaaaaaay to much netflix to actually ‘stick’ with a service.
Well I’m sticking with Netflix and Stan + a dns proxy to swich netflix regions to get different content (theres a fair amount of stuff on local netflix -disney stuff mostly thats not on US netflix).
Presto is a non starter being back in the last centiry of SD only.
most of the US stuff is censored; if we get Netflix content will that also be censored?
I agree with Miranda. Good looking too.
People are going to disappointed when they find out what Netflix is.
It’s not a “vrtual video store”, its like a normal FTA channel only you pay not only for the channel but also the distribution costs. There are no recent release movies or sport ; just old stuff like Robocop and Miss Congeniality 2 and a few lame cable TV programs that the FTA channels couldn’t bother buying.
Yes John, lame shows like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black
@John – Its nice when your kids “make it” isnt it 😉
Miranda touches on an important point. The content algorithm. The content wars will only last so long and the marketing budgets will front-load at launch and struggle to maintain.
Netflix spends 150m a year on their recommendation engine, much more than the tens of millions in marketing quoted above and who knows how much more than presto, Stan etc spend on their algorithms.
This will come down to what users want to watch next, not necessarily now and Netflix will pluck something from their database of 80,000 genres that you never knew you might like. Maybe not immediately but in the long run it will be unbeatable.
Or not…just wanted to share a different perspective. All I’ve seen and heard so far is the content or pricing wars and very little on the experience and retention.
Let’s be honest, this article was long so I only skim read it. From what I saw, it’s a neat comparison.
However, I’d like to point out that House of Cards is also on Stan. In regards to pricing, Stan is also the cheaper option with 3 devices for $1ish more than Netflix. In my opinion, Stan comes out well on top in both content and pricing. I also haven’t experienced many app glitches – their app is great. Netflix is a huge disappointment
HOuse of Cards and OITNB are pretty good shows. Bloodlines and Marco Polo are awful. Let’s be honest Netflix Australia selection looks and feels like a $10 a month service. Foxtel looks and feels like a more expensive service. Nothing is free and you get what you pay for – as you should in a market economy.
Hi Too Long,
Thanks for the comment.
Stan has the original British version of House of Cards which was made in the early 90s, the Netflix series is a US remake.
Cheers,
Miranda – Mumbrella
Netflix will create huge problems for the local industry, it simply wont invest in local content and frankly why would they.
The Government needs to step up and either tax them then use the money to invest back into local content or set Oz quota requirements.
Kimmy Schmidt is a fun little show and House of Cards S1&2 were great, however Netflix isn’t quite there yet in terms of being a quality production house, having said that I’m sure they’ll get there in the coming years.
Which streaming service provides the most local content? Perhaps iview? But amongst Stan, Netflix and Presto?
@Liam the major sports, locally and globally, will do their own thing. Have a look on Apple TV, you’ve got MLB, NBA, NHL etc and now Cricket Australia too.
Just steal content for free @ The Pirate Bay, KickAss Torrents, etc!!!!!
Yes Ciaran, lame shows like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black.
Australians want recent release films and sport, not cr*ppy American TV series. We already get heaps of them free.
If you have Fetch TV you can get netflix through Fetch – might be worth trying first on a monthly basis.
Fetch/ Netflix and Fox sports for me, then wait and see how this all pans out over the next 12 months.
We have been using the US version of Netflix for about 18 months now, we are never going back. We also get Hulu, to say we are spoilt for choice is an understatement. Sometimes it takes us about 10 mins just to choose what we want to watch, the choice is overwhelming. Just wait till the HBO service starts & every show worth watching will be available. To those of you being negative, try the free 1 month trials and see just what you have been missing, then you can comment with some authority, otherwise you just sound like grumpy old men, afraid of change.
Surely one of the the BIGGEST issue for “commercial” television is the fact that people are increasingly zapping through ad breaks – or jumping onto social media during them – often encouraged to do so by shows like X Factor etc. Does ANYONE sit through ad breaks anymore? Just a matter of time before advertisers realise they are spending big bucks on a product no one is consuming. Let’s face it, as people become more accustomed to watching movies etc uninterrupted on platform like Netflix etc – I believe traditional ad breaks are on their last legs – just like the demise of the classifieds (rivers of gold) in newspapers.