Late last year, Foxtel-owned streaming service Binge announced it would be launching an ad-supported tier in the first quarter of 2023. Now, Binge has laid out the details of what you can expect on the Help Centre section of its site, including when the changes are set to kick off.
Rather than introduce an entirely new tier, Binge's current Basic plan will be updated to include ads from March 30, with its Standard and Premium tiers set to remain ad-free.
Thankfully, Binge's single-stream Basic tier will receive an unexpected bonus in that its streaming quality will be bumped up from standard definition to full HD. Because of this, the Basic tier will keep its current AU$10p/m price, which seems like a pretty good trade off.
Binge with ads: What to expect
As for how many ads subscribers can expect to see, Foxtel Media has revealed that TV shows will get a frequency cap of one block of ads (roughly a few minutes) per hour, per user, with no repeated ads during that time. Users will only see the same ad a maximum of three times per day. Luckily, there won't be any ads served during movies or on-demand Kids content.
Additionally, Foxtel Media revealed that the ads on Binge will be strictly moderated, and it's promised that wagering ads will not be among the ads served.
Binge's ad-supported Basic tier arrives just a few months after the introduction of Netflix's ad-supported tier, which is priced competitively at AU$6.99p/m. Of course, Netflix's offering is only available in standard definition.
And while Netflix beat Binge to the punch in offering a tier with ads, the Foxtel Group already had an enormous head start, having served ads on its Kayo Sports streaming service for quite some time. Though Kayo's ads are only shown at the start of the program, with any ads during the event coming from the original broadcast and not Kayo itself.
If you aren't already a Binge subscriber, you can sign up by clicking on one of the options below. It's worth noting that new subscribers to Binge will get a free 14-day.
