Is Stan strong enough to stand up against Internet TV giant?
Two months before Netflix Australia made its debut, Stan entered the streaming market as a contender in the race to woo subscribers. With its exclusive programming and low monthly price, Stan has proved a strong local competitor for the global streaming giant, Netflix but when it comes to pricing, content and accessibility, how does Stan really compare to Netflix?
Netflix vs Stan: Price
Both Netflix and Stan charge for their services at three seperate tiers: Basic, Standard and Premium.
In Netflix's case, Basic will get you Standard Definition (SD) and one concurrent stream, Standard gets you High Definition (HD) and two concurrent streams and Premium will get you 4K streaming and four concurrent streams.
For Stan, it's more or less the same with the exception of the Standard plan, the basic plan will get you Standard Definition (SD) and one concurrent stream, Standard gets you High Definition (HD) and three concurrent streams and Premium will get you 4K streaming and four concurrent streams.
How do Netflix and Stan's content libraries compare?
While both providers offer their own quality originals, like Stranger Things, Altered Carbon and Okja on Netflix and The Other Guy, No Activity and Wolf Creek on Stan, what we're interested in here in library totals.
At last check (18 June 2019), Netflix Australia had 1067 TV shows and 1500 movies with a total of 2567 titles whereas Stan had 356 TV shows and 998 movies with a total of 1363 titles.
Netflix wins by a quarter-mile in this case. Check the graph for a better visual on how those two compare.
What about kids programming?
Thanks to solid partnerships with various distributors, Netflix has a reputation for premium children’s content that has transferred over to their Australian line up. Maybe the strongest content partnership Netflix has in the children's department is Dreamworks, which has allowed it to produce quality original series like Trollhunters, Dragons: Riders of Berk and Home. Netflix also has a feature that allows for children to browse through an age appropriate library without being able to see titles to movies that are not meant for them.
Stan's non-exclusive agreement with Viacom gives them rights to content from Nickelodeon and Nick Jr., with popular shows like Octonauts and iCarly. Children will also be able to stream classics like Thomas and Friends, Bob the Builder and Mister Maker.
All well and good, but Disney's streaming service could trump all when it arrives in Australia.
Does Stan or Netflix Australia offer better quality streaming?
Both providers are using an automated bit-rate adaption technology that allows the movie to stream in line with your internet speed but with Netflix, the video won’t need to re-buffer at the new speed.
You can also get SD, HD and Ultra HD on your television set with Netflix, depending on which package you choose. Same goes for Stan. At the three seperate plan tiers (Basic, Standard and Premium) Stan users can access SD, HD and 4K respectively.
More TV and movie streaming options
Why stop at Netflix and Stan when you can compare them all? See what Prime Video and hayu are offering in the table below.
Frequently asked questions
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I have Netflix thinking of changing to Stan cause I’m still waiting for Season 8 of Vampire Diaries and Season 2 of The Musketeers which Stan has available why does it take Netflix so long
Hi Deb,
Thanks for your inquiry
Hope this information helps
Netflix hasn’t released a statement regarding shows not on their roster. Most likely there has been a dispute over the copyright and rights of Netflix to show the shows on their roster. I would suggest visiting Netflix chat support on their website for clarification on this.
Cheers,
Arnold