There's a new player in the TV streaming market and it wants to make life easier for you.
Foxtel's new subscription platform Binge launches today, boasting 10,000 hours of content, scaling up to 20,000 in the next 12 months.
One of its drawcards will be much-discussed US shows like Succession and Game of Thrones from cable channel HBO.
Content deals with Warner Bros, Sony and the BBC will also give subscribers a wide range of popular movies and documentaries.
But Binge will face strong competition for your dollars from established players Netflix, Stan, Apple TV, Disney+ and Amazon, which are already duking it out in a crowded market.
To that end, aside from its content offering — TV series Big Little Lies and The Wire, the DC Universe collection and the Fast & Furious films — one of its key selling points will be its promise to "kill the scroll".
A 'surprise me' feature that harks back to old-school TV
Streaming services are bulging with content, and data suggests people will subscribe to more than one.
That can mean decision paralysis.
"Consumers want to avoid feeling regret," Adrian Camilleri, a consumer psychologist and senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Technology, Sydney, who studies judgement and decision-making, told the ABC last year.
"Regret comes from choosing to invest in an option such as a new TV series that turns out to be unsatisfying."
In a briefing for media, Binge said it would bolster its personalisation algorithm by adding sections curated by humans.
"Everybody loves the algorithm — to an extent," Brian Lenz, director of products for Binge, said of streaming services generally.
An over-reliance on algorithms that do not give you an indication of quality — i.e. whether one action film is better than another — has been a source of criticism for streaming platforms.
Recently, Netflix, by far the largest platform in Australia, indicated it was looking to address that by having sections of its platform include staff picks.
Netflix also recently introduced a daily top 10, designed to give you an idea of what other Australians are watching.
Part of Binge's strategy is a section called "surprise me", which will bring up a random show or movie. If you don't like what you get, you can roll the dice again.
Netflix has also reportedly been testing a function on some devices that lets users play a random episode from a selected TV show.
It recalls a technology streaming services were supposed to disrupt: the old-fashioned free-to-air television, where you weren't always sure what you were going to get.
Securing names may come with a downside
TV critic Cam Williams said the proliferation of new streaming services, now close to 20 in Australia when you include niche players, meant the period of rapid growth and new subscribers could be coming to an end.
"You can now swap between streaming services, like flicking switches on and off, but the existence of more options is overwhelming," he said.
Binge will have some of Foxtel's original shows, but Binge will operate separately to on-demand platform Foxtel Now, and a subscription to one won't get you access to the other.
Dan Barrett, a critic who writes the TV newsletter Always Be Watching, said the arrival of Binge was significant for Australian streaming audiences.
"Netflix offers largely new US and international shows and movies, while Stan is a mixed bag of less well-known content from a number of content providers," he said.
"Binge offers the market what it has been missing: high-profile, iconic TV shows and movies."
But he said no amount of design could rid us of decision paralysis.
And he warned that while securing big-name series and movies may help some users find what they want, that could come with its own downsides.
"Something that had slowed us down in the past was that selecting an unknown movie or show involved so much discovery," he said.
"But what we're about to find out with Binge is that maybe our viewing interests have shifted — maybe it is that sense of discovery that has made streaming video so compelling.
"It's possible that a large library of familiar titles might leave some viewers feeling like they've seen everything before."
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMia2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA1LTI1L2JpbmdlLWZveHRlbHMtbmV3LXN0cmVhbWluZy1zZXJ2aWNlLWFpbXMtdG8ta2lsbC10aGUtc2Nyb2xsLzEyMjc3NjY00gEnaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEyMjc3NjY0?oc=5
2020-05-25 06:44:04Z
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