A first look at Stan
Yesterday streaming service Stan invited some members of the public to have a first look at the new platform. Mumbrella editor Alex Hayes looks at what it has to offer.
Of all the streaming services being talked about at the moment (and yes there are a lot – Presto, Netflix, Quickflix etc.) the one that’s most intrigued me is the joint offering from Nine Entertainment and Fairfax Media – Stan.
So when I got the invite to have a preview of it which went out to the public yesterday, I leapt at it. However, my initial impressions were not good.
I signed up on my work Mac, only to be told Stan isn’t supported on Google Chrome on Macs, one of the bigger browsers. And when I tried to get it to load in Safari it loaded with glacial speed. Not a promising start.
However, on my mobile devices (iPhone and iPad) – it was a different story.
It’s fair to say the platform has taken its cue from Netflix – and why wouldn’t you? After all the US giant is the leader internationally in the space, so it’s got to be doing something right. And if Stan wants to lure Aussies using the service away from it, then making it recognisably similar will help.
The layout of the site seems fairly straightforward, and intuitive. When you log-in there’s a feature carousel at the top plugging some of the top content, with other shows and movies sorted into genres underneath. It starts with what you last watched (intuitively), and the back catalogue of James Bond films which is some of its best exclusive content, scrolling down through new this week, premium drama and ‘groundbreaking comedy’ sections, down to pre school.
I was surprised by the depth of the back catalogue, which features a lot of former Nine Network shows (as you’d expect) but also draws heavily on British and US shows like Sherlock, Ray Donovan, as well as Danish cop drama The Bridge. Shows like Fargo and its exclusive Amazon Prime content Mozart in the Jungle and Transparent are also well represented, as are a lot of classic comedies and a decent range of kids’ shows. It is worth noting for long-running or ongoing shows, often only the first few series are available on the service.
The recommendation engine also seems capable – throwing up a good range of viewing options similar to the show you’re browsing – useful with what’s a fairly extensive catalogue of shows. Having only had it for 24 hours it’s a little too early to say whether it does the personalisation thing as well as Netflix.
Kids are a massive driver for these services, but housing their content next to violent police dramas can be fraught with issues if you’re letting them have free-reign on what they watch with it.
Stan does offer a function to create restricted profiles, for either kids under 12 or by classification – but it doesn’t have the handy kids’ button on the home screen to get straight to that section that Netflix does, and requires a little more fiddly navigation from a main account through the pull-out menu.
I’d been meaning to watch the last few episodes of Breaking Bad for a while, but haven’t managed to catch them on my Foxtel IQ box when they’ve been on repeat. So this was my chance.
I splashed out on a Google Chromecast device, hooked it up to the tele, and settled back to watch the first episode without any issues. One of the things I noticed was the fact it seems to have a responsive streaming function, again similar to Netflix, which takes into account your internet connection and streams in high definition, higher-standard definition or standard definition. A handy function with Australia’s fluctuating internet speeds.
However, when I came to try to cast the next episode to the TV it wouldn’t play ball – although I can’t say whether that’s a fault of Stan, Chromecast or a slightly crappy internet connection.
Whilst it would play on the iPad directly, the sound was not great – and when I tried to link my bluetooth speaker to it it assumed I was trying to aircast to another device, and froze the picture on the iPad screen. Something of a glitch for a service which is set designed to be used on mobile devices.
Despite the glitches my overall impression was good. It’s still early days and the first time Nine or Fairfax has entered the streaming arena, and Stan isn’t likely to be available to the public for another couple of weeks (although no launch date has yet been set) – so I expect there to be some refinements in the meantime.
Ultimately content will be the key factor in determining which of the services locally lives and dies (and if they can wrestle viewers from the US version of Netflix). With a lot of content here also appearing on rival services the a solid user experience is essential, and with a little more tweaking Stan will be a very solid consumer proposition.
Alex Hayes is editor of Mumbrella
Content and Price will be key factor in success as Australians don’t have a high propensity to pay for content, just ask Foxtel.
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“However, my initial impressions were not good.”
“Despite the glitches my first impressions were good.”
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Good point Anonymous – the perils of little time to write.
I’ve adjusted it to ‘overall impression’ instead.
Cheers,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
Hey Alex – what was the streaming experience like given our internet speeds? any issues?
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Hi Awesome,
I actually found the streaming pretty slick – my home internet isn’t the fastest yet after a few seconds to load shows played no problem.
It does appear to monitor the network and change between HD and SD depending on the speed – which is service available on Netflix. Overall it was satisfactory – especially pre-public release.
Cheers,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
Great, thanks for your response mate. And thanks for the overall write up, really interesting. Are you going to do similar write up’s for the other streaming services when available?
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I am trialling Stan and I agree with these comments. It will live or die on content. It needs to have a quarantined area for the kids especially the small kids. Watched the Hobbit movie and it was a good quality. For $10/month it isn’t too bad.
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Second para: “However, my initial impressions were not good.”
Second last para: “Despite the glitches my first impressions were good.”
Thanks for making a confusing area just that little bit more confusing…
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@awesome – We’ll play it by ear. Stan is the first ‘new’ service, Presto has had a tweak for the TV content but been around for a while, and Netflix will be interesting from a content perspective – but I’ll bear it in mind.
Cheers, Alex
Hi Spinner,
As I said to anonymous that was a good point, and had been changed to “overall impressions” at 3pm.
Cheers,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
We also tried out stan last night, on a smart TV. After using Netflix and HULU (and Crackle (owned by Sony) which is free) with native Apps on the Tv the UX/UI while simple is not as intuitive – using a browser does not make it great.
The content is not overwhelming as yet and as Alex mentioned loads of Channel 9 content as to be expected
I would imagine that within 1-2 years that there will be consolidation with providers in the AU streaming market.
A smart move maybe to bundle/partner with ISPs that then allow free steaming so as to not use all the quota – if discussions are not already under way.
Stan has made an ok start but I don’t think I’ll continue beyond the free month.
Last night we browsed and explored what is essentially back catalogues of studios and end up watching SBS.
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Alex, Interesting read, but where does this leave advertisers? It’s going to be so hard to reach people with all this fragmentation – and let’s not mention the fact people are zapping through ad breaks on free to air, or ignoring them by jumping onto social media. I know this is a site aimed at the advertising industry, but surely fragmentation is the greatest challenge to the industry in years?
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free reign? fee rein
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