Despite announcing yet another Binge price hike last week, Foxtel Group has revealed that the homegrown platform will integrate live and on-demand sporting channels, direct from Kayo Sports.
Kicking off in style, the platform will stream the back-to-back AFLW Grand Final and the WBBL Grand Final on November 30 and December 1 respectively. The platform will also stream summer sports with no ad breaks during play.
The addition of Kayo Sports channels now makes Binge an even better option for sports fanatics with tighter purse strings: Binge's plans start from as little as AU$10p/m for its basic, ad-supported tier, compared to Kayo's AU$25p/m spend. As expected, customers on this tier will continue to receive adverts when watching sports content.
While we assume that Binge will not house as much content as the sporty streamer, it will seemingly stream popular and highly viewed events, including Big Bash League, Super Netball and NRL and AFL Football simulcast games in 2025.
Binge will also stream more live news channels from major international and local outlets, with Sky News, CNBC and Fox Sports News joining the platform's existing lineup. Plus, the platform will up its lifestyle content offering by adding a live channel of global franchises and local adaptations of hit shows such as Selling Houses Australia, Great Australian Bake-Off and Love It or List It Australia.
The integration — surprisingly — comes at no extra cost to subscribers, no matter which tier they're subscribed to. However, we can speculate these additions are encompassed by the standard tier's hike, set to take place from November 1 for existing customers.
One aspect that's not clear at the moment is whether customers on Standard or Premium tiers will be able to watch sports content in 4K. We've reached out to Binge for clarification and will update this article when we hear back.
In a statement from Foxtel Group direct, Binge and Kayo's CEO, Julian Ogrin said the company is "changing the streaming game" by bringing the best of Kayo Sports to Binge subscribers.
"We've supercharged Binge to be the leading platform that brings live and on demand entertainment, sport, news and lifestyle content together on one platform," Ogrin says.
Potential Binge/Max integration seems more likely
Now that this content integration cat is out of the bag, we can safely theorise that this may not be the only addition that Binge subscribers will receive in the next year.
When we reported on HBO's streamer Max officially coming to Australia in 2025, we speculated that there may be some sort of integration between the two, as suggested by Max's launch in other regions. Japan recently welcomed Max's content catalogue through a partnership with local streamer, U-Next, allowing users to stream Max's shows and movies at no additional cost.
While adding Kayo Sports to the Binge mix wasn't necessarily on our streaming services bingo card, this integration could indeed open the door to Aussie audiences accessing more of HBO's catalogue through a local partnership with Max.
But until we get any more details on how Max will inevitably fare in the Australian streaming scene, it's safe to say that Binge is here to stay, all while providing an even bigger win for sports fans.
