BINGE vs Stan: Which streaming service is better for you?

Launched in 2013 Stan has steadily grown. According to Roy Morgan Research as of 31 March 2020, Stan is now Australia's third biggest streaming service with 3.7 million members. Though now there's newcomer BINGE which enters the competitive streaming with an eye on taking market share away from Stan.

Stan is still behind Foxtel in terms of popularity who ranks second on the list, which does matter as Foxtel owns BINGE. So how do the two local competitors stack up?

Stan vs BINGE: Price, screens and video quality

The packages for the duo are virtually identical dollars wise. Both start at the $10 mark with their basic package and cost $14 for the middle offering. However, BINGE has priced its premium subscription at $1 per month more, costing $18.

Something more enticing for new customers is Stan's longer free trial period of 30 days which is more than double BINGE's. When putting the prices head to head, Stan immediately gets the edge as its standard plan offers an extra simultaneous stream. One screen doesn't seem like a big deal, but when it comes to trying to be a service for families or those who service share, it is.

The premium option has 4K streaming capability. The lack of 4K capability from BINGE is hard to overlook, as the only difference between its standard and premium package is two extra screens.

Which, for an extra $4 a month, comes across as more of an inconvenience, but is the same strategy used by Netflix. Its sister product Kayo Sports suffers from the same problem which likely has something to do with wanting Foxtel to be the premium service.

Right now you can also stream Stan via a few extra devices. However, this is expected to soon change as BINGE will be adding Smart TVs in the coming months and gaming consoles a little further down the line.

So overall purely on face value, Stan is the more economic service, but that's without evaluating the content and features on offer.

BINGE vs Stan content

Where things begin to get really interesting between BINGE and Stan is the TV shows library. As of June 2020, Stan had 535 TV shows and 1,786 movies. Meanwhile, BINGE had 602 shows and 816 films.

Though, Stan was recently competing with BINGE's parent company Foxtel for the coveted broadcast rights to HBO, but lost out. This is where BINGE will hold an upper hand as it now stands to steal away Friends and from Stan.

Stan was able to fight back somewhat by airing Love Life, the first HBO Max original show in Australia. Though, it was only able to do this because Love Life isn't an HBO exclusive as it was produced by Lionsgate. The other caveat of Foxtel holding exclusive HBO rights is that BINGE has some of the most renowned TV series globally including Westworld, Succession, Watchmen and Big Little Lies to name a few.

That's without even mentioning that BINGE has deals in place with FX, E!, A & E, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. and more. To put it bluntly, that equates to BINGE also having Keeping Up with the Kardashians, The Walking Dead, shows and movies from the DC Universe and Mrs America.

BINGE is able to boast that it has 5 of the top 10 shows of all time based on IMDb. Whereas Stan only has Breaking Bad as its sole entrant on that list. So while Stan's TV library isn't terrible, the blockbusters aren't as frequent and it doesn't have as many new big series like BINGE has.

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Old shows and series

When it comes to your classics, both Stan and BINGE have something for everyone. Newbie BINGE has Sex and The City, The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, The Wire and Modern Family. While Stan is able to attract consumers back to the likes of Grey's Anatomy, Family Guy, Scrubs and Dexter.

The pair also suffer from some content crossover. Both have the same seasons for favourites such as The Office, Seinfeld, Sons of Anarchy, 30 Rock, The Nanny and Parks and Recreation, some of which are also on Prime Video. There are also some slight variations among other shows that they both have the rights too. BINGE has an extra season of Elementary, but Stan has more seasons of Ray Donovan.

You can see the full breakdown in the table below. Simply click the 'Only show cross over titles' box, to just see duplicate shows.