Stan on track to hit 100,000 subscribers, says Fairfax
Fairfax says the company’s streaming joint venture Stan is on track to pick up 100,000 sign ups by March, when rival Netflix is due to launch.
The claim about Stan, which is jointly owned with Channel Nine, was made in Fairfax’s half-year financial results released this morning.
The service was launched on Australia Day, however there is no guidance about how many of the projeted 100,000 sign ups are paid and how many were signed up with free deals and promotions.
Access to Stan’s content library, which consists of TV and movies, will set users back $10 a month after completing a 30-day trial.
Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood said: “Stan, our Streaming Video On Demand (SVOD) joint venture with Nine Entertainment Co, launched in January and early adoption is exceeding expectations. Stan is tracking to have more than 100,000 sign-ups by mid-March,” in a press release accompanying the financial results.
The half yearly report also claimed that the trends in subscriber sign ups were running at least 3 months ahead of expectations.
Announced last year, the deal between Nine and Fairfax is worth $100 million, however a significant portion of that is thought to be in contra deals for advertising and marketing.
Stan has already signed deals with SBS and BBC for premium content as well as other major TV franchises from the US such as Better Call Saul.
The service has also enlisted the talents of comedienne Rebel Wilson will front a new marketing campaign across print, online and outdoor to drive uptake.
OTT platform Fetch TV this week confirmed a deal with Netflix that will see the subscription TV platform and its telco partners Optus, iiNet and Dodo, back the US video streaming giant as part of a looming marketing blitz that will coincide with an upcoming Australian launch of the service next month.
Netflix will be supported on Fetch TV’s box, giving its 170,000 customers access to the streaming service through their TVs while Netflix is thought to already have more than 200,000 subscribers in Australia, who access the service via VPN.
Fetch CEO Scott Lorson told Mumbrella this week he would still be open to a similar deal with Stan, but made it clear that Netflix would be its marketing priority.
“We see Netflix as a clear front runner in the SVOD space,” Lorson told Mumbrella. “This deal has been our priority and Fetch TV and our partners will certainly be supporting them at launch.
“We don’t rule out other deals down the track and we enjoy strong relationships with many parties but our current focus is on Netflix.”
Robert Burton-Bradley
For those who started the free trial on Australia day, the last day of free Stan will be the 26th of February. More interested to see what the numbers are after that of paid subscribers.
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Great to see one of the Australian services doing so well so early. For those who want to compare what everyone has to offer check out http://www.whichflix.com.au.
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I’d expect huge drop offs once people have to pay and no further announcements about numbers on Stan. It just doesn’t have the content to compete with U.S Netflix.
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they should just report like Quickflix does – split out paid and trial … gives you an idea of where it really sits.
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Be interested to see if they reveal their paid subscribers. I think not
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Can’t imagine many of the 100k committed $10 when there was a free month on offer, so of courses they have no paid subscribers now. There are a few bugs in the interface, but I will be rolling over into a paid subscription at the end of the month. I can see at least a few months’ viewing in their current content line-up. Time will tell if enough new content comes online to encourage me to keep spending the tenner, of course.
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Did you know that disco record sales were up 400% for the year ending 1976? If these trends continue… A-y-y-y!
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Credit where credit is due…Stan is in my view a good product. Easy to use, good mix of content at launch, decent UI.. Watched Stargate via chromecast last night. No buffering, played all the way through, good sound, good quality for old movie. The rebel Wilson adds are stupid and irrelevant but so what, at least some wanker at an agency took some of nines money.
Presto I’m afraid not so good , works only sometimes with chromecast been down totally for last week or so, not so good sound, have to pay extra for tv, buggy.
Quickflix just a steaming pile of confused shit not worth writing about.
Netflix…looking forward to seeing what you’ve got
All good really hopefully thieving pirates have a few less reasons to steal.
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Fetch TV with Netflix is where i’m heading – unmetered content here we come 🙂
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I signed up over a month ago but I’m cancelling now. Incomplete older series, new ones I’m not interested in, and zero worthwhile local content.
I’ll wait for Netflix and hope.
Either that or fire up the VPN and go back to Hulu Plus.
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agree with @benross — Stan’s programming lineup and user interface is actually very good. And I think they have surprised everyone with their marketing efforts. They have definitely stolen a march on Presto, which needs to scramble to catch up
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