Foxtel vs BINGE: What does the streaming service mean for the pay TV giant?

Foxtel was once the envy of every Australian household. However, with the rise of internet TV, the provider had to reinvent itself against streaming services, eventually leading to BINGE.

It initially tried to do so with streaming service Foxtel Now, which mirrors the pay TV experience but via the internet. Meanwhile, BINGE carries almost all of Foxtel's existing entertainment and movies packages for a single fee.

Does that make it a good fit for you? And should you ditch Foxtel or Foxtel Now for BINGE? Here's a quick run-down of the services.

Price: Foxtel iQ vs BINGE vs Foxtel Now

With 3 different price tiers, BINGE is competitive with the rest of the streaming market. However, when you put it head to head with its sister products, it blows them out of the water. Subscribers pay a flat rate to access all the content on the service, which instantly differentiates BINGE vs Foxtel iQ and Foxtel Now.

The Basic plan comes with ads and supports 1 device at a time in HD for $4.99 a month. The Standard plan lets you stream on 2 devices simultaneously for $19 a month while the Premium plan supports 4 concurrent streams for $22 a month. The latter 2 plans offer 4K where available. The only live sport BINGE offers is WWE.

Foxtel Now offers channel packs. The basic Essentials pack costs $25 a month and comes with a mix of Pop and Lifestyle Channels. From there, you can customise your subscription with more packs based on your interests: Sport (total $29 a month), Movies (total $20 a month) and Drama Extra (total $10 a month). Get them all for $104 a month and you also get the Docos and Kids channels packs, which aren't available otherwise. As a side note, Foxtel Now sometimes carries pre-roll ads as well, depending on what you're watching.

To replicate the BINGE library on Foxtel Now, you need to get the Essentials, Movies and Drama Extra packs for $55 a month.

Finally, the basic cost for the Foxtel Plus channel pack, which is a must for all Foxtel pay TV users, is $73 a month. From there, additional packs include Sports HD (bringing your total to $103 a month), Movies HD, Kids and Favourites. You'll also need to pay for the set-top box and you might be required to pay additional fees for installation.

Promotions are always running. New users can score discounts or, depending on whether they opt for a contract, can have the extra fees waived. Foxtel offers no contract options too, but those don't come with similar perks.

BINGE vs Foxtel free trials

Sign up for BINGE and you can enjoy 7 days for free. That's enough time to browse the content library, test the features and figure out if the platform is something you can enjoy in the long run.

Foxtel Now discontinued its free trial from 5 October 2023. Foxtel iQ doesn't offer a free trial.

Features: Foxtel iQ vs BINGE vs Foxtel Now

Depending on how you prefer to watch TV shows and movies, the features that each service offers might sway you in one direction or the other.

As the name suggests, BINGE caters to binge-watchers – people who like to marathon TV shows and movies and spend quite some time in front of the screen. It packs cool features such as hubs for all the content surrounding a certain title (BINGE Centres), fancy watchlists (BINGELists) and a feature that automatically plays a title that the algorithm thinks you may like based on your preferences (Surprise Me!). The service also lets you watch select Foxtel channels live via the internet.

As for drawbacks, you can't download titles to watch offline.

Foxtel Now lets you watch content live and on-demand from all the channels in your chosen packs. The quality is HD and offline viewing isn't available.

Finally, Foxtel iQ offers subscribers a set-top box, the iQ, which acts like an entertainment hub. The current iQ5 model is Ultra HD- and HD-capable and give you access to other streaming apps. You get channels in 4K quality and can record live TV. You can use the Foxtel Go app to watch your favourite Foxtel content on the go. The app is free with any Foxtel subscription.

What devices can you use to watch BINGE, Foxtel iQ and Foxtel Now?

Device	BINGE	Foxtel Now	Foxtel iQ
PC/Mac	✓	✓	✓ (with Foxtel Go)
iOS	✓	✓	✓ (with Foxtel Go)
Android	✓	✓	✓ (with Foxtel Go)
Xbox One S|X, Xbox Series S|X	✓	✖	✖
PS3	✖	✓	✖
PS4	✓	✓	✖
PS5	✓	✖	✖
Selected smart TVs	✓	✓	✖
Apple TV	✓	✖	✖
Telstra TV	✓	✓	✖
Chromecast/AirPlay	✓	✓	✖
Foxtel Now Box	✖	✓	✓
NVIDIA Shield TV	✖	✓	✖
Amazon Fire TV Stick	✓	✖	✖
Foxtel iQ	✖	✖	✓

BINGE is available on a variety of devices so you can watch on screens big and small. The number of devices you can watch on at the same time depends on the plan you subscribe to.

Meanwhile, Foxtel Now lets you watch on 2 devices at the same time. With Foxtel iQ, you can log in to 5 devices and watch any 2 at the same time.

Content: Foxtel vs BINGE

As mentioned earlier, Foxtel used to be the home of sport and it largely still is, though it did disperse this with Kayo Sports and Foxtel Now. BINGE only offers WWE content live and on demand. Otherwise, BINGE has select content from every other existing Foxtel package, including live channels.

Both have all of the HBO heavyweights such as The Last of Us, House of the Dragon, Euphoria, Succession and Game of Thrones. They also air content from other providers, including The Office (US), Reservation Dogs and The Walking Dead.

On the movie front, BINGE packs a generous movie library but it's not as extensive as Foxtel's. Foxtel Now offers live and on-demand content from the channels available in the packs you add to your subscription.