After a pricing leak late last night Netflix has officially confirmed its Australian pricing plan.
The pricing is split into three different packages.
— Single-stream standard definition plan for AU $8.99
— Two-stream high-definition plan for AU $11.99
— Four-stream 4K ultra-high definition “family” plan for AU $14.99
That’s per month and a free one month trial is available at the official Netflix site. So a little better than you might have expected. With the freefall of the Australian dollar, Netflix could have charged a little more, but they’re not. So that’s good.
Netflix launches here starting tomorrow and will have access to all of Netflix’s original shows like House of Cards and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Good news, considering Netflix had given rights to certain flagship shows to Foxtel. The exception is season 3 of Orange is the New Black. Australian Netflix users will have to wait until June 12 to watch. Netflix Australia will also have content from distributors like Warner Bros., BBC, FOX, NBC Universal, Village Roadshow Entertainment, Beyond Distribution, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and The Walt Disney Company.
Yesterday’s leak revealed a fairly comprehensive list of shows available, and you can scroll through them in the embedded images below.
As you may have noticed, Netflix apps have been popping up on all of the major new consoles — the PS4, Xbox One and the Wii U — in preparation for tomorrow’s launch. The apps will be launching with Netflix’s new user interface.
All-in-all signs point to a far more comprehensive, full Netflix experience here in Australia, not the limited, hampered one we might have been expecting. Result.
Comments
130 responses to “Netflix Announces Official Australian Pricing”
Stoked. Keen.
This is far better than I expected Netflix to be here. Once I work out a way to stream reliably to my TV, I’ll sign right up. At the moment, the network connection to my consoles is kind of balls so I need a better option.
EDIT: I bought a Chromecast.
Combine the chromecast with the netflix phone app and you’ll be sorted!
That was my first thought but I figured it’d be worth seeing if anything else was better.
Go with a Chromecast mate – such a cheap little device and it works so well. Also awesome when you want to share something from your phone with a group, be it the latest movie trailer, a funny youtube video you saw or your holiday highlights.
Sure thing. Whatever you say, Darren from Google.
I can’t recommend a device that I think is great and use all the time? Sorry. I thought the Trjn needed a better option and was giving advice based on my personal experience with one such option. Wow.
I’ve got a little something for you Darren – it’s called a chill pill – should work wonders 🙂
I was just joking. Wasn’t intending to offend!
It was just the way you wrote it made it sound like an ad.
All good 🙂
Stoob from Google here, I Personally have a chromecast attached to every tv in my house and to every tv in my friends and familys houses. You need to go buy about 20.
I loved the Chromecast so much I attached one to my child surgically! Now instead of watching tv with him, I just stream shows into his head…
Shit. I accidentally streamed Hannibal…
Well, this is gonna be fun.
If you have an Android device then Chromecast is not such a crazy idea, however if you use an iOS device then you might want to consider the Apple TV
I personally like Apple TV because of the abundance of iPhones and iPads in my house, but also because it links to your iTunes purchases. Since we’ve bought TV shows and movies (not to mention music) via iTunes in the past it aids in my quest to keep as much of my digital media in as few places as possible. Unless there’s an easier way to put everything in one place in the future I’m going to need a bloody spreadsheet.
I have iOS devices and the Chromecast is still decent ‘investment.’ They’re dirt cheap and can be regularly found for $35 on sale.
definitely will put my vote behind the chromecast. Such a great device which provides near flawless integration between phone/tv/PC and TV.
Yay for open standards! Both companies have failed their customers. We shouldn’t have to worry about what devices we already have. Stupid vendor lock in.
Netflix has setting to adjust the quality of the stream to help with the strain on your connection.
My PS3 can barely load the SBS and ABC on demand services. My laptop, while in the same room, can watch Twitch streams on Source quality. The problem is the consoles and I have no idea why.
What model ps3 are you using?
Unless it is one of the newer models, there is a bug in the PS3’s wifi firmware which makes wifi abysmally slow when using WPA encryption [which, everyone uses!]. I ended up using wired ethernet for my PS3 and it instantly solved the speed issues.
[You can verify it by temporarily turning off your wifi encryption to see if the speed improves. I suspect it will, but make sure you turn it back on again].
If you don’t have an ethernet port close by, look into powerline ethernet adapters. I run a <$50 pair by TP-Link and they work perfectly.
I’ll have to check that out although if that’s the problem, I think I’ll just have to get the Chromecast.
@trjn definitely check it. Don’t forget that the PS3 doesn’t have 802.11n from memory, which caused massive buffering/streaming issues for anything more than 480p for me. I just wired it up too, and now I skip that altogether as my desktop is right next to the TV 😛
Yeah, plug the PS3 into the router via a network cable and the problems disappear.
PS3 struggle badly when it comes to download and upload. Mine took 48 hours to download puppeteer.
Are your consoles connected wirelessly?
I’m pretty amazed that the platform launches in Australia tomorrow, but we’re just finding out about how much the damn service will cost today, and that’s only because the prices were accidentally leaked.
Why should they have to give everything out in advance?
The product isn’t available, so the price won’t do anything except give their competitors time to change theirs!
At $8.99 per month, they would be pretty confident their price will blow everyone’s mind.
I agree that the pricing is definitely better than anybody expected, but if you’re going to be offering a service then I’d assume the amount people would have to pay for it would be a reasonable thing to communicate in advance. Like advertising a new iPhone then only telling people how much it costs on launch day.
It cuts both ways, too early and customer undercut you, too late and customers can’t plan and may go with another service before yours even rolls out. I’m sure if they thought people would buy foxtel etc instead then they would have told everyone the price a week earlier.
Yeah I guess.
I was wondering if perhaps they are actually not wanting a bunch of people digitally queuing up for the service on day one. Day-one impressions matter a lot in peoples minds, and the initial surge of people jumping on the untested infrastructure is going to put a lot of load on it.
If I was running such a service, I’d want the customer base to gradually jump on the service so you have a chance to provision more resources as demand slowly increases.
Just a thought, anyway 😉
Bear in mind, $8.99 is SD only. It’s $11.99 for HD (which also allows you to stream to two screens at once) which is still peanuts.
My connection struggles with SD already, HD is just more buffering to me and an overall less enjoyable experience if it’s constantly stopping. While I would love my connection to be reliable enough for HD it’s not going to work for a lot of people.
When they repair my phone lines (that will not happen) or move me to a more stable and higher speed connection, I’ll consider upgrading.
Can’t speak for the Aussie service yet but the US service starts everything at low res and buffers up, then starts buffering higher res.. But if you’re confident your speeds will not be enough even to even test it out, I understand.
I stream crunchyroll (anime streaming) and some days I just can’t watch it because it cuts out all the time. I also notice it starts in low res and goes up to a higher res, but once it starts getting paused constantly the res begins to jump up and down.
Hopefully during my free trial I can try out HD to see if it’s possible, I just have serious doubts about it.
I think they also hid the price to not give competitors a chance to undercut them before launch. No point telling everyone your price three months earlier giving you competitors and chance to combat that.
I think this is it. Presto and Stan have also launched very recently, and my guess is that Netflix wanted them to commit to a pricing structure before announcing their own.
Yeah @theblink has nailed it. In a market like the one they’re competing in, it’s going to be a little cutthroat to try and lure people over.
I have a friend who has just quit, Stan, Presto and Qwikflix because there was nothing he liked on them. I’ve looked at Netflix which is about the same price but has far more content.
Netflix also has name recognition and quite a few VPN subscribers.
Well there you go, they’re really sticking it to the other streaming services! Thanks for the info @dknight1000 ^_^
It’s a marketing tactic aint it? For impulse buyers.
Single Stream and Two Stream? The American version doesn’t have this…
Yes, it does.
That one month trial will be nice to see how it performs on our networks.
I think I’ll be trialing it too. I’m not sure
Yeah, if anything I’m sold on giving this a look via the trial. But just looking at those lists I’m thinking this’ll be like Quickflix: Trial for a few days, get bored, cancel before they can charge me.
I love this and I hope the compression is the same as their US counterpart. Its pretty much the only streaming i have ever been able to do on my poor (mostly balls up) ADSL1 connection I have 🙁
I don’t see why they would change what already works
dude, Orange is the New Black Season 3 is not out anywhere yet, so it’s not surprising to hear AU wont get it yet.
Let me see 8.95 per month or download for free mmm tough choice
If it was $25 per month then I would agree, but at $8,95 per month for the convenience of being able to reliably find high quality streams it’s no contest, the paid option provides a better service
Yeah but you are renting your downloads. If Netflix goes under you can’t watch your stuff any more, if you don’t have an internet connection at the time, if they take down a movie/series for some reason, if you want to watch it on an unsupported device, etc. I just want a paid legal service where I can own the media and make backups without DRM. If it uses either plain https or torrents that is a bonus. Until that service is offered I’m using a seedbox.
People will always find a way to justify piracy. Now that content is accessible and affordable, it’s all about how you have to stream and can’t just download DRM-free media and wah wah wah.
Plus unmetered downloads on many ISPs means that it works out *cheaper* than pirating.
Wanker.
9/month is pretty low mate
Yeah look honestly, I’ll still probably download a bunch of stuff I hold close to my heart (GoT, Walking Dead etc), because the thought of those shows skipping a beat midway through just annoys the crap out of me.
For hopefully 50% or more of the time I’m hoping that something like Netflix can curb my tv habits… mainly because I’m ultra lazy and hate having to jump on the pc, download the file… transfer to hd and then shove into the tv… yes it’s an easy system but hey, if paying $9 a month for a legit service which is easier to use is now available then I start to think “Isn’t this what we’ve been after this whole time”. Makes me think we kind of have nothing to argue about and need to pony up and start backing these services*
*I need to sift through netflix AU to confirm it’s not a gimped content system before I praise them too highly 🙂
Between the iTunes store, Stan and Netflix, about the only thing I’m going to pirate this year is Game of Thrones. Foxtel still has that locked down. :/
Yeah and I think it’s just a comfortability thing from my perspective. Once I (slash a whole bunch of people) start successfully streaming things and feel like I can rely on it, I’ll be more than happy to ditch my tv downloading habits, it’s really a waste of hdd space unless you want to keep something around for “offline” viewing (holidays etc).
I’m also loving the WWE network and will probably sign upto UFC as well.
I’ve got the WWE network, but it does gobble up a lot of download limit if viewed constantly. So I’ve downloaded a lot of WWE shows (mostly stuff not on the Network yet, like a majority of WCW Nitro and Thunder episodes) to a HDD so i can view it whenever I want without having to keep an eye on my 200gb a month limit.
However, I do use the WWE Network often to view the monthly PPVs and specials. It’s well worth the $14 a month I’m paying now (damn falling Aussie dollar) just for those bits.
ive been using it as well for just ppv and the monday night wars which never really effected us
Yeah there’s a lot of stuff missing. I’m mainly chomping through WCW/WWF circa 1998. I like to watch one brand and then flick over to get a good comparison of what was happening at the time.
When I look back I was definitely a WCW fan through and through, watching it now some of the stuff is super dated but meh.
I guess there are still people out there willing to download free torrents of everything. At least we now have the option of something that is extremely good value all things considering, to watch things legitimately and reward the creators of this content. My whole thing has been that content is too expensive and inaccessible. I have been using the US Netflix for a few months and it works out to be slightly more expensive than this option when you factor in exchange rates, CC fees and the unblocking service its still very good value for such a wide range of content. I’ll trial the Aussie one and then will look to switch over from the US one if its as good.
lol
at least he’s being honest, i suppose.
A few queries:
Is the catalogue on par with what other non-US regions have? I don’t expect ALL of the stuff to be on there.
How often are movies/shows removed from the service? Monthly?
How soon from cinema are movies made available? I’m still waiting for Birdman to appear on blu-ray at the shops, for example.
Would like to see some tests either on these Allure sites or by average joes if possible, please. On all types of connections/speeds.
Thanks in advance 🙂
Alleged content: http://imgur.com/a/wz74R (via Giz, Reddit)
Definitely not on par with the US version but not too shabby either.
Movies/shows will more likely be removed after 1-2 years, although it depends on a bunch of factors (like Stan/Presto competitiveness, studios wanting more money, etc.)
Netflix US tends to have older stuff, and I assume the AU version will be the same. Presto seems to be the better option if you’re after newer movies, but it still won’t be before DVDs get released (and without HD, more expensive, with less TV shows).
It’s a little though because the supposedly leaked image doesn’t show that many TV shows so can’t really compare it to the US version, but looking at the movie catalogues it’s pretty close.
Netflix isn’t a service I would recommend if a priority of yours is ‘new’ movies.
what kind of download speed do i need to have to watch HD stuff?
About 10Mbps to watch 1080p and I think 12Mbps for “Super” 1080p
thanks, so if i max out at 13mbps ill probably have trouble at times when my internet isn’t running at its maximum ?
Just wondering if the HD price is worth it for me
720 is I think 5 or 7Mbps. It makes a huge amount of difference so definitely worth at least trialling it. You should be sweet with 13mbps though.
thanks heaps 😉
You can trial the HD licence and see if its actually playing HD and decide. The other thing is multiple device playback. If you want to be watching something in two places at once you pretty much have to have the second option. Just FYI.
Super HD isn’t a thing. Its 4k UHD.
Taken from their website.
3.0 Megabits per second – Recommended for SD quality
5.0 Megabits per second – Recommended for HD quality
25 Megabits per second – Recommended for Ultra HD quality
HD starts at 720p so I’d imagine 13 Mbps is plenty for 1080p
My connection varies from 7-9Mbps and I have no troubles, it looks fantastic, better than any HD Freeview or Foxtel put out.
I wonder if the price has to be low because they want to convince people who are now using a US VPN Netflix to switch across to a native Australian Netflix.
With the exchange rate they’d be making more from the VPN people at the moment.
It has to factor in… I’m using the US one and this is actually cheaper if you factor in the exchange rate and the unblocking/VPN etc. Whether the content is worth moving over straight away is the question 🙂 Looks like its not as lean as I thought it was going to be.
If one had an existing US account, could one log in to the Netflix apps tomorrow (which don’t have a VPN or DNS change) and expect it to just work?
From what I understand, you can VPN switch to different regions so it appears you account is not based in a country.
So if you have a US account, and try to access in Australia with no VPN’s it would probably work.
Why is the resolution linked to the number of streams? What if you only want a single stream but want it in HD or 4k? Seems like it should be a bit more flexible with the packages.
i find this strange as well
I’ve got US Netflix with a single stream and, off the top of my head, I think it’s like an extra dollar a month to upgrade to HD with no need to buy an extra stream.
When I got the US one a few months ago this pricing structure is identical to the US one. Why its the way it is? You’d need to ask Netflix that one 😛
Woo woo woo.
It’s the sound of da police!
You know it.
Is there actually a list of shows Netflix Australia is offering somewhere?
No official list yet, just the images in the article that are screencaps of the “leak”.
Think I might get more excited once I actually know what shows they are offering.
Unfortunately, they aren’t likely to be showing the F1 though.
I feel your pain! I think I’ll be hitting a dodgy stream this weekend to watch the F1 🙁
Pretty sure Netflix doesn’t do sport. I’ve been using the US version for over 6 months.
Yeah…they should though.
I also want to know is there a list of the shows/movies on Stan or Presto?
This is great pricing, I’ll probably just go for the SD subscription though. Unfortunately I can’t connect my Wii U to the internet besides phone tethering at the moment, watching on my Wii U gamepad would be neat.
holy shit…. pricing in line with the US (especially considering paying for VPN) and a not too shitty lineup… i might actually be checking this out.
Whilst it doesn’t have everything I want, it has some stuff i’ve been trying to find on DVD for a while or when I have it’s way too expensive and there’s usually no version on the torrents in a acceptable quality.
So i’m keen to give this a go, especially at $8.99 a month. Since I know I won’t be able to stream HD content with my shit data cap.
Optus and iinet currently are offering unmetered Netflix. Not sure of any others but may be worth switching if you start finding yourself being restricted in your viewing habits.
No Optus service in my area, we’re Telstra dominated.
I can get iinet through a Telstra exchange. You should look into that a bit further.
I was just looking into that earlier, best they can offer me is on peak & off peak, which is lame, and i’d only be using on peak data which would make them more expensive than Telstra :S
Plenty of providers have unlimited plans now too anticipating this sort of thing. Optus $90 bundle is a good one if you can get it.
Going by the “leaked listing” this is at least worth a trial to see what’s really going on. If reports are to be believed, then we’re getting 1700 shows/movies compared to the US version of 7500 shows/movies.
If anything, I’m going to trial now, decided 6-12 months down the track when it fills up with more movies/shows.
Wonder if we’ll end up getting the new Daredevil series and whatnot considering it’s supposed to air soon…
Also, is iiNet still offering Netflix to not count towards your usage cap?
Apparently we are getting that stuff, since it’s Netflix original content, or that’s what the VP of content acquisition said in an interview he did with one of the tech reviewer guys I sub to on YouTube.
There is absolutely no reason why they’d start selling off the shows they produce and not have them on their own service. We will get them, probably at the same time as the US does, or within a few hours.
This pretty much. I think shows that came out a while ago got licenced to other providers over here but anything new or reasonably new Netflix would have held the rights for themselves for their own service. Once the rights for those other shows expire with the other networks we should see the list grow. Probably later in the year I guess.
iinet and its group of brands are offering unmetered access.
Who else does iiNet own? I’ve completely forgotten…
iiNet’s subsidiaries:
Westnet
Netspace
TransACT
Internode
Adam Internet
I had an email from Internode shortly after Netflix was announced stating that Internode will have quota free usage for netflix. I’m assuming that’s down to being a subsidiary of iiNet. It was good news!
Be all over this if I could get better than 2Mb down…
My connection is the same and I manage SD with a US Netflix subscription.
This will be best birthday present ever 😀
Might sign up for this and cancel stan before they charge me.
How much 4k content is there, and will it be streamable on 11Mbps connection.
I guess they can afford to be cheaper than their competitors by not charging GST:
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/netflix-wont-charge-australians-gst-20150318-1m1sit.html
Which seems a bit odd, since they’ve registered an Australian subsidiary, partnered with Australian ISPs to offer unmetered access, and had to buy licenses to stream to Australians.
I love reading anything from Fairfax or News Ltd regarding the Netflix launch. It adds a little hilarity to my day.
To be fair, the article may have a point but I think the bigger issue is when companies don’t collect the GST but still charge more for online services (looking at you Apple).
It’s definitely in Fairfax’s self interest to publish stories like this, but it is also news worth reporting.
When there is a roughly 10% difference in price between two competitors and one of the competitors isn’t including the 10% GST in their prices, it’s worth asking questions.
Can you watch Netflix on your PC/Mac too? Or just consoles like quickflix?
Browsers, Smart TV apps, phones & tablets, streaming devices (eg. Apple TV, Roku & Chromecast), gaming consoles… the list goes on.
Basically anything that Netflix have added their app to over the years, they’ll make available to Aussies to download & use.
Now if only Foxtel would pull their head out if their arse and put Game of Thrones on Presto.
I presume it’s all 5 seasons old like US Netflix.
I know I’m an an entitled arse but until Netflix and its ilk catch up with the power, versatility and convenience of pirated goods I gonna stick with my Pirate Bay. It’s not even about money.
Sadly you have a valid point. I tried the US Netflix and whilst it has a lot of content, it doesn’t have current seasons of the TV shows I watch. I also buy box sets of the shows I like so having a back catalogue is of no benefit to me. Whilst this service will be great for a lot of people, I can’t see myself getting it.
Im just going to keep my US Netflix acc and my Getflix vpn account, it allows me to switch to the aussie Netflix if I feel the need. I think it costs me $14 a month for both US Netflix and Getflix.
$2 more a month for access to all the worlds Netflix libraries seems like a fair deal to me
This. I’m using Unlocator (DNS proxy) with Netflix for about the same price and can switch regions from the Unlocator Android app. I also use moreflicks.com to search across all regions.
Being someone who knows nothing about the service, can someone enlighten me a little?
Does Single-stream standard definition plan mean You can only get the one movie to stream for 9 bucks?
Single stream means you can only use Netflix on one device at a time. You can watch the movie as many times as you want but no one else can use your account on another device to watch other shows/movies at the same time.
That makes sense. Cheers for the info mate
Tried it this morning, missing literally all the shows I want to watch. I tried to be moral, but it looks like its back to piracy for me. Sometimes it sucks to be Australian.
I’m really happy so far with my trial. Stream is lag free and really pretty, and it’s all just uber-fast. Love it 🙂
Pretty happy so far on the trial. Saw quite a few shows I need to catch up on that I may have otherwise acquired via nefarious means. The wife is very excited about it too (happy wife happy life). Stream was great and in very good quality so it looks like a keeper for us.
I would pay for a ‘FOXTEL Paywall’ on Netflix. Pay the monthly, get sports and all the FOXTEL exclusives but I know it’ll get priced to kingdom come