Australia's home grown streaming service is finally shaping up as a worthy Netflix rival, as they prepare to fend off Amazon Prime's big push.
The Stan subscription video service (co-owned by Fairfax Media) has come a long way since it launched two years ago on Australia Day. In the beginning Stan and fellow Australian streaming service Presto weren't much competition to foreign raider Netflix, which still dominates Australia's streaming landscape, but this week Stan made a range of announcements showing that it's ready to take things to the next level.
![Stan is stepping up, taking the fight to Netflix and Amazon in Australia's subscription video showdown.](/web/20170209081327im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/m/8/i/y/z/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu7ua9.png/1486512600357.jpg)
Stan's headline announcement this week is the addition of offline viewing and Ultra HD streaming. The former will be limited to iOS and Android devices, while the latter will only be available on a handful of home entertainment gear; some 2015/2016 Ultra HD televisions from Samsung and LG, as well as Sony's Ultra HD-enabled PlayStation 4 Pro. Ultra HD Stan may also come to the Fetch TV Mighty, considering it was Australia's first set-top box to offer Ultra HD Netflix streaming.
Ultra HD streaming arrives on Stan in April, but like Netflix it's only available on a small collection of titles. That includes Stan's original programming like Wolf Creek and No Activity, along with a range of imports from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul to Transparent and Mozart In The Jungle.
In the beginning there was a "there can be only one" mentality which assumed all would fall before Netflix, I'll admit I was guilty of that, but it seems that Australia is big enough for a least a few streaming services to exist side-by-side.
In the long run it's free-to-air television which will feel the pain, as broadcast television viewing figures have plunged 10% in the last year once you take baby boomers out of the equation.
Netflix was initially touted as a Foxtel-slayer, but the figures revealed that the pay TV giant didn't experience a subscriber slump and many Foxtel watchers simply paid extra for Netflix and viewed it as another package. Meanwhile Stan has also managed to hold its own, it's certainly no danger to Netflix but the combination of Netflix and Stan seems to be becoming a popular alternative to Foxtel in some homes.
Presto has fallen by the wayside, it was running a distant third but in the end it died because Foxtel bought out Seven and then understandably shuttered the service in an effort to drive people to Foxtel Play. The demise of Presto also creates an opportunity for Stan to win over SVOD fans who now have a spare $15 per month in their pocket.
Of course one of the long-term challenges facing Stan is that a handful of its flagship shows are actually Amazon Originals, which could get complicated now that Amazon Prime Video has half-heartedly launched in Australia. There will come a time when Amazon is ready to reclaim these, just as Netflix reclaimed House of Cards from Foxtel, but the loss will hurt Stan more.
For now Stan has secured the next seasons of Transparent and Mozart In The Jungle, perhaps simply because Amazon is yet to take its global push too seriously.
Amazon Prime Video's non-launch Australian launch, in time for The Grand Tour, was a joke and even now the Australian library is pretty thin. For some reason Amazon is making its global subscribers — basically everyone outside the US and UK — wait several months to watch its original content, unlike Netflix which aims for a simultaneous global release. For example, Amazon's The Man in the High Castle season 2 comes to Australia this week, but it was released on December 16 in the US and UK.
The word is that Amazon has big retail plans for Australia this year, at which point it might start to take Amazon Prime Video a bit more seriously. Now is the time for Stan to dig in, before the two giants of US streaming video declare war on each other in Australia.
Which streaming services do you subscribe to and what keeps you coming back?
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