Hey, Presto, Foxtel unveils streaming movies.
Foxtel launches its new stand-alone streaming movie service, in a bid for new customers.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under Streaming, Top Stories
Foxtel last night launched its new stand-alone streaming movie service, Presto.
From 4am today the service is now available through iTunes for $19.99 a month with no lock-in contract, with a tempting first-month price of $4.99.
Last night at The Ivy host Danny Clayton introduced Foxtel CEO Richard Freudenstein who had to take the train to the venue due to traffic snarls in Sydney. He took the opportunity to get a laugh from the invited guests.
“Many of us from North Ryde had to get the train tonight. You might notice if you catch public transport that everyone is on their phone or iPad, and they were all looking so bored except for the ones who had Foxtel Go!” he joked.
“I overheard the conversation, ‘Gee I wish on this train they had an on-demand movie service that could really get me through the trip. The good news is, as of tomorrow morning we do and it’s called Presto.”
Presto is part of Foxtel’s push for new subscribers without the need for a traditional home installation, and movies can be viewed via compatible PC, Mac and iPad. It competes in the same space as other streaming movies from players such as QuickFlix, Fetch TV and Bigpond Movies.
The service offers a vast range of ad-free movies, both new release and classic titles, from major studios and key independents including MGM, NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, Roadshow Films, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Entertainment One Films Australia, ICON, Studiocanal and Transmission Films -from April 10 The Walt Disney Company also joins.
Recent titles include A Good Day to Die Hard, Iron Man 3, Identity Thief and Oz the Great and Powerful and this month Star Trek: Into Darkness, The Lone Ranger and This is the End will be added plus The Great Gatsby, Fast & Furious 6, Monsters University, World War Z and Elysium in April and May.
Shaun James, currently General Manager of Music Channels and Head of Digital, takes responsibility for the service as Director, Presto & VOD.
Richard Freudenstein said, “Last month’s announcement that (Presto) was on the way created a big stir and we’re looking forward to sharing Presto’s library of recent favourites and classic hits with Australian movie lovers. Presto is a game changing new way to experience great movies, when and where you want, for a price per week equivalent to what you’ll pay for just one standard iTunes movie rental.”
“I’m delighted that Shaun James, who is such as strong member of the Foxtel team, has agreed to take on this role. Under his leadership, Presto is certain to go from strength to strength.”
Presto features an intuitive interface, curated col,lections, recommendations and critics’ reviews from Rotten Tomatoes.
Also attending were Executive Director of Television Brian Walsh, Sophie Faulkiner, Jacinta Campbell, Timomatic, Tim Robards and Anna Heinrich, and Israel Falou.
13 Responses
Are their any people who comment on this blog that actually like Foxtel.
And they wonder why people source content via overseas means, legal and illegal.
If this is Foxtel’s answer, forget it!
The problem with Foxtel is that is so overpriced. The quality of HD is really poor and has dropped in quality over the years so as to jam more channels in. And not to mention, too many signal dropouts. And sorry, why are we still forced to pay for a last century business model where you have to pay for 50+ channels so as to get access to the 2 or 3 you only want to watch? It would be like Coles or Woolworths making you buy every brand of potato chips so as get the single brand/flavour that you are interested in.
I buy Blu-Ray so this has no interest for me. However, the moment Foxtel offers an on demand TV show streaming service, I will sign up to that.
I like to give local businesses my money where I can, and am currently using Quickflix but they’re non-pay-per-view selection is awful and it’s not in HD. I found out yesterday that French satellite TV is available in Australia for $55 a month. I will happily watch TV in French if it means that Murdoch doesn’t get my money.
Now bring in a stand-alone Sports Channel (including the AFL Channel) make it available for people with X-Boxes, PlayStations, T-Boxes (and any other devices that do not require Foxtel to install a set-top box). Make it a month by month contract deal as they do for the above streaming devices now that you have to buy a basic package on.
I really think that would bring them in more customers, for instance when the Australia vs South African Cricket Test was in, I bet they would’ve got some people jumping on board.
If you have your own device to watch the stream on, Foxtel don’t have to supply a set-top box to your premises (or satellite dish etc). So not like they need to recoup any costs by forcing you to have a basic subscription to get the Sports.
I really don’t think this will be very successful.
I can understand from Foxtel’s point of view that they already own the content, so this is just a vertical market for them, but I don’t believe there is a dollar to be made here.
I’m not sure who did the market research, or who there intended market is, because not much adds up in this equation.
People that want movies are already likely to be Foxtel subscribers, and with Foxtel Go, Presto is of no value. I also doubt that there are many Foxtel subscribers that would cancel their subscription just to get Presto. Those that don’t have Foxtel but would if they could afford it are also not going to be interested in this service. That just leaves us with people who don’t see value in Foxtel. They certainly won’t see value in Presto. They either refuse to pay for TV or will use something cheaper like Netflix (which also…
No HD, no sale.
Hm, half the quality and half the content of netflix for twice the price? No thank you.
Sweet!
no HD…. Check
no Sound Sound…Check
considering the australia government even encurages people to use a VPN to get netflix
zdnet.com/au/australians-encouraged-to-bypass-netflix-geo-block-7000017615/
why bother?
SD only.
Pass.
@Charlie Miso You go to iTunes to download the free app for you ipad.
You can watch it on PC or MAC, by signing up at the website.
to expensive and why dont they do a web based version so everybody can get it,i don’t know like Netflix which is half the price and has a lot more content
via iTunes only?
Pass.