FOXTEL and Seven West Media are combining to offer a TV and movie streaming service to rival that of Stan and Netflix.
Named Presto Entertainment, the service will add TV shows from both Channel 7 and Foxtel (partly owned by News Corp Australia, the publisher of news.com.au) on top of the move library already available on Presto.
While no TV shows officially announced yet, the service will feature a “broad range of locally commissioned and internationally acquired content including drama, comedy, factual and entertainment programming.â€
Pricing is yet to be confirmed, but the current price for the movie only Presto service is $9.99, and it should stay roughly in that ballpark.
The service is expected to launch before March next year, when Netflix will begin streaming locally.
As we pointed out last month though, the increasing number of streaming services in Australia will mean that Aussies will have to sign up to several different services to get access to all the shows they want to.
At launch, Netflix will have the exclusive streaming rights to Batman spin-off Gotham, while Stan will have the rights to Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul.
Foxtel has the rights to popular HBO content in Australia. They also own the rights for the next season of Netflix commissioned Orange is the New Black — one of the programs that was key to driving the popularity of Netflix in the US.
While Channel Ten have catch up service TenPlay, they are yet to get into the subscription streaming space, which it no doubt will in the near future, meaning content fragmentation is only to get even worse.
Foxtel is partly owned by News Corp Australia, the publisher of news.com.au.