Stan inks deal with Telstra for free customer access in a bid to grow awareness of SVOD
Australian streaming service Stan has forged an agreement with Telstra which will see its product offered alongside rival Presto within the telco’s broadband bundles.
The deal will be seen as a surprise to many in the industry as Telstra owns 50 per cent of pay-TV company Foxtel, which in turn owns half of rival streaming service Presto, which Telstra also offers on a six-month free plan.
Stan CEO Mike Sneesby defended the move, which comes four months after Stan penned an agreement with Vodafone, arguing the future of SVOD (streaming video on demand) would likely see a variety of offers across various telcos.
“When we launched the Vodafone partnership (in February) there were lots of questions about would this be the only partnership,” said Sneesby. “We were very open about the fact we would continue to talk to all the major telco players around broadband.”
He added: “The new campaign from Telstra and the bundled offer of Stan with Presto and Telstra broadband is obviously the result of those conversations. And we have a range of conversations that will continue.”
Sneesby
Sneesby argued that the focus of the SVOD players was not about taking market share from each other, but rather growing awareness and the overall number of households with streaming access.
“I think there was a perception that each of the players (Netflix, Presto, Stan) would end up aligning with each of the telcos, but I think the nature of the video services is that we will probably see a lot of different combinations with the bundles as the market evolves,” said Sneesby.
“I think it is something we will see with all players in the SVOD space – continuous discussions with all players about bundling product.”
The new offer gives consumers six months free access to Stan and Presto when they sign up to a a 24-month contract on Telstra’s M, L or XL bundle starting at $80 a month.
“The biggest challenge for us, and all the other players in the SVOD space, is making sure we grow the market – the bigger the market, the bigger the opportunity for each of us an individual businesses to hit our business plans,” added Sneesby.
“As it is right now, being offered in a bundle that is providing consumers awareness of the category in a value for money package with their broadband checks all the boxes.”
Last month Stan announced it was approaching the 200,000 subscribers mark with Sneesby signalling that thus far they were pleased with the retention of consumers.
“The bundles are really another way of giving consumers another way to purchase a value for money package,” he said.
“Our experience has been that those people coming directly to Stan once they trial the service they stick around and continue to enjoy the service.”
Nic Christensen
Mike Sneesby is speaking on the ‘State of Streaming’ panel at Mumbrella360 on Wednesday alongside Presto boss Shaun James, Fetch TV CEO Scott Lorson, Quickflix CEO Stephen Langsford and Ten chief digital officer Rebekah Horne. Click the banner below to find out more.
The networks should have built a joint SVOD platform with separate ‘front ends’. If Netflix tries hard enough it could be the only one left standing.
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Stan are so far behind the 8 Ball in terms of carriage. Great thing about most the other services ids you can simply set up the app on most the set top boxes or games consoles.
Pretty sure the best you can do with Stan is run via a computer or Ipdad, then connect to your TV. Too hard.
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I totally want an Ipdad!
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@ Laurie Patton – I believe they did have discussions many years ago but couldn’t agree – something about egos – I think ! Even the ABC was involved in such discussions…
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I watch Stan on Apple TV, but the Ipdad sounds like innovative tech 😐
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@Gonz, Stan allows you to watch on your TV with Apple TV or Chromecast and on your computer, tablet or smartphone.
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