Beamafilm review

At first glance, Beamafilm is another streaming service to add alongside the long list of other options like Netflix, Stan and Prime Video. Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll likely find value in its unique approach to monetisation. While you can pay for a subscription as a consumer, Beamafilm is more targeted at libraries, schools and other related institutions. If you’re a member of a participating institution—and Beamafilm claims there are 20 million people who are—you can access Beamafilm for free.

Beamafilm’s pitch is that it “champions local, diverse and independent voices”. In practical terms, the selection of movies, TV series and documentaries is likely to have more options that aren’t as familiar as the other streamers mentioned above that compete over bringing in popular titles.

Beamafilm has a few viewing options. Stream via Android and iOS apps or compatible browsers, including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera and Safari. By default, this makes Beamafilm more built for streaming on smaller screens, but if you have cast-capable devices like a Google Chromecast, you can push content from a smaller screen to a TV.

There are parental controls for those with kids, and movies content with M, MA15+ or R ratings can be filtered out using a profile password. There’s also a dedicated Kids Zone tab for kid-friendly content.

In terms of data usage, Beamafilm says it uses 1GB per hour for SD video (typically, 480p) and up to 3GB each hour for HD video. Supported titles stream at up to 1080p quality, but older content like Skippy and the Intruders (released in 1969) may max out at lower resolutions like 540p, which should put data usage between 1GB and 3GB for resolutions between 480p and 1080p.

Beamafilm has two main subscription tiers. Like other streaming services, you can pay $7.99 per month after a 30-day trial. That fee nets you access to a library including hundreds of movies, TV series and documentaries, all of which are ad-free.

The better way to access Beamafilm, though, is not to pay at all. Beamafilm primarily uses a business-to-business income model, which translates to asking libraries, schools and unis to pay subscription fees on behalf of their members. If you have a membership with an eligible institution, you can access Beamafilm for free. I used my local library membership to write this review.

Beamafilm has clearly taken interface cues from Netflix and other popular streaming services. In basic terms, there’s promoted content in a top banner, then a lengthy vertical scroll to see the top items from a range of categories. In a supported web browser, hover over an item of interest to see more info—including rating and resolution—then click on the love heart to add to favourites (your watch-later list) or ‘Watch Now’ to get viewing.

On mobile devices, tap on the content you want to know more about, then it’s much the same deal as web browsers. The top promoted banner is stuffed with dozens of items, so you’re better off dipping into the various subcategories to find content of interest. Playback controls are limited but logical: play and pause, volume, skip forward or back by 10 seconds, cast, full-screen viewing, and activate closed captions.

Admittedly, the Beamafilm Android app was better optimised for my Google Pixel 7 Pro than it was for my Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+, the latter of which didn’t properly go into full-screen mode and, frustratingly, had no visible playback controls. Note that Beamafilm is a streaming-only service, so you won’t be able to download anything for offline viewing. The other main challenge is the inconsistency of simultaneous streams.

In my browser, Beamafilm told me it supported two simultaneous streams as part of an error message when I was playing different content on an Android device. On Android, a differently phrased error message told me Beamafilm only supported one stream per account. Later in my tests, I was able to get two simultaneous streams working when I started content in a browser first, then on mobile afterwards. Go figure.

Beamafilm’s content is separated into movies, TV series and documentaries. I counted 700+ entries under the documentary tab, just shy of 800 in the movie category, and just over 100 options in the TV section. The trick is there’s some crossover between categories. Certain docuseries were listed in documentary and TV sections, while some of the TV series entries were film collections (at least two for Nicole Kidman).

Overall, Beamafilm doesn’t have the kind of killer catalogue to tempt you away from Netflix, Stan or Prime Video. But it does have an eclectic mix of newer and older content to at least get mainstream tastes started.

The documentary section included The Act of Killing, Blackfish, Exit Through the Gift Shop and Searching for Sugar Man. I made note of dozens of recognisable entries under movies, including The Last Emperor, The Professor and the Madman, Shame, and Calvary. There were also iconic foreign-language options, including Oldboy and Pan’s Labyrinth. While those two films were available in their original languages, The Pilot: A Battle for Survival only had the English dub instead of a choice to stream in the original Russian.

TV had fewer notable entries, though it did have one season of Rake, both seasons of Top of the Lake, and the classic BBC thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Overall, not a massive amount of content, but a decent selection that’s worth watching, especially if you’re not paying a monthly subscription.

While cheaper than other streaming services, $7.99 a month isn’t exactly chicken feed when it comes to a subscription that may not have a catalogue of recognisable content for most homes. That said, if you can get Beamafilm for free and don’t mind casting—or watching on a tablet, smartphone or computer screen—there’s enough good ad-free stuff here to have another option for streaming content.

Our evaluation of streaming services starts with cost. It’s okay if a streaming service is comparatively pricey, but it has to have a library of quality content and a cadence of new stuff to justify the price. Bonus points if there’s a free trial, and we like it when there are no ads.

The next level of appraisal is about content. We can appreciate that most homes will be familiar with popular TV series, documentaries and movies, whether they’re classics or part of the zeitgeist. Streaming services should be easy to use, intuitive and offer streaming on multiple devices. We also favour extra features like the option to download movies and TV shows for offline viewing.

Fidelity matters, too, especially given the rise of 4K TVs. It’s not essential for streaming services to offer 4K content but we like the ones that do, and we prefer it when users don’t have to pay more for the pleasure of viewing in higher fidelity. Finally, we like streaming services that offer more than just video content, like Netflix with its mobile game selection and Prime Video with the bundled Amazon Prime perks.