Tired of fiddling with your VPN settings to get access to Netflix in Australia? Feel like keeping those streaming dollars inside Australia? These are the best movie streaming services available in Australia.
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Movie picture via Shutterstock
Some of these services provide online streaming to movies while others achieve similar results via downloadable rentals. All of them are viable options if you’re looking for affordable, legal access to thousands of movies.
Foxtel Presto
In a bid to keep movie streaming dollars inside Australia and inside is coffers, Foxtel decided to take its vault of movie content and throw it at a new subscription service that you actually might want to buy. With Presto, you’ll be able to access all the movies that Foxtel has license to, including the new releases it sticks onto its movie streaming channels, which is good news for people who like close-to-cinema-release titles.
The studios currently signed on for Foxtel’s movie service include MGM, NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, Roadshow Films, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Hopscotch Entertainment One, ICON, Studiocanal and Transmission Films. You’ll be getting access to all seven movie channels, including Foxtel Movies Premiere, Foxtel Movies Comedy, Foxtel Movies Drama/ Romance, Foxtel Movies Thriller/ Crime, Foxtel Movies Action/ Adventure, Foxtel Movies Family, and Foxtel Movies Masterpiece. The aim going forward is to take the top 200 movies at the box office in recent months and throw them into the streaming service as soon as a studio allows it.
You’ll end up paying $19.99 per month for Presto.
BigPond Movies
BigPond Movies is a movie rental service available via Telstra’s T-Box DVR or a compatible IPTV and broadband connection. The service provides access to over 4,000 movies with new releases starting at $5.99 per rental. Telstra customers also receive unmetered movie downloads, which means it won’t count towards your monthly internet data allowance.
Mubi
Mubi is a movie streaming service for the Sony PlayStation Network that focuses on cult movies and world cinema. If your tastes lean towards the off-beat and weird, this is a service unlike any other (it even has Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers). A monthly subscription through your PlayStation 3 costs $4.99 a month.
Fetch TV
Fetch TV is a movie streaming service available from internet service providers iiNet, Optus, Adam Internet and Internode and others. The entry-level service provides 30 free movies on demand at any time, with seven new titles added each week.
Pricing varies from ISP to ISP, but tends to start at around $10 per month.
Quickflix
Quickflix started out life as a DVD rental service but has since branched into online movie streaming. Its WatchNow service has amassed more than 120,000 subscribers. Quickflix WatchNow is available on computers, TVs, Xbox One and the PlayStation 4. Unlimited streaming costs $9.95 per month.
iTunes
iTunes is the go-to streaming service for Apple users looking to rent or buy movie downloads. One of the best enhancements introduced in iOS 5 and higher also allows you to download purchased movies through Apple to any compatible device through iTunes In The Cloud.
Prices vary depending on the release date and popularity of the title, with new films typically commanding a rental price $5.99. You can also opt to buy movie downloads outright for around $25.
Xbox Video
Xbox Video has apps for phones, tablets, Windows 8 PCs, your Xbox, and a Web streaming player at video.xbox.com. It has a great selection of streaming TV shows and movies in Australia, and prices are surprisingly reasonable with rentals sometimes costing as little as $2.99.
Google Play
The Google Play Store allows you to rent movies or buy them outright with new releases going for $24.99 and $29.99 (for standard-definition and Full HD, respectively). You can watch your movies on most Android devices and compatible IPTVs.
You can use Google Play on your Android smartphone or tablet, but there’s also a Google Play Movies & TV app for iOS.
Free and legal?
If you’re looking for a legal way to get free online movies, you could try one of the advertising models offered in Australia, which provide on-demand movies interspersed with revenue-generating adverts. Two of the most popular services are Viewster, which offers a selection of Warner Bros. films and the Sony-backed Crackle. As you’d probably expect, the movie selection on offer isn’t typically the cream of the crop, but hey, it’s free. You can read more about how Viewster works here.