Binge review: Is Foxtel’s streaming app any good?

Back in 2020, Foxtel revealed a new streaming destination for its premium TV and movie selection, Binge. Positioned as an "alternative" to Foxtel Now, Binge is a slick app and a second home for some of Foxtel's most popular television. But is Binge the buffet of content Foxtel claims it to be? Or is it a subpar second serving of prime cut entertainment?

​The promise of Binge is Foxtel's award-winning content at a price that compares favourably with Netflix. On that much, it delivers. Binge will set you back between $10 and $22 per month, depending on the quality you're after and the number of devices at your table. There's also a 7-day free trial if you're looking for a taste test.

Binge is priced more competitively than Netflix and Stan, and is way better value than Foxtel's packages. At it's cheapest price, you still get ads which is just one of the things stopping Binge from being a five-star experience (more on those in a tick.) 

Here's how Binge's pricing stacks up.

Most people will have at least one Binge-compatible device, but it might not necessarily be the device you want to stream on.

You've got the streaming device staples; smartphones and tablets (iOS 12+ and Android 7+), and computers via a web browser (Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox), Apple TV, and select Android OS Smart TVs can download the Binge app too. Lastly, those who invested in the TV-smartifying Google Chromecast can cast directly from the app.

At launch, Binge wasn't available on PlayStation or Xbox consoles but that's since been rectified.  It's also available on NVIDIA’s phenomenal 4K-upscaling Shield TV Pro (which might be your only option for streaming Binge in 4K).

Not every option will give you the same experience, however, and for specific devices, the stream optimisation seems to be undercooked.

When Binge first launched, it didn't offer 4K, nor did Binge have any plans to offer Ultra High Definition streaming. However, not long before the launch of Hubbl, Binge added 4K to its most expensive plan (while also upping its prices.) 

The addition of 4K at the top-end is a more welcome inclusion than ads at the lower tier but stream quality can still be a little inconsistent. 

While the quality seems to vary between titles, some serious compression issues are most evident in darker scenes (case in point: the famous 'Battle of Winterfell' episode of Game of Thrones). Scenes with limited light sources can become so pixelated as to look like impressionist recreations of your favourite shows. This is a probably Netflix seems to have mastered better than the rest. Even Amazon Prime Video struggles with video compression and that's an app with a lot more money behind it. 

If affordable pricing is the appetiser, Foxtel's premium content library is undoubtedly the main course, and Binge has just about every big dish. HBO's biggest TV shows, like Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon and Succession. If you're a freak for WWE you'll find that on Binge too. 

Then there's the huge library of movies on Binge. It has old favourites like Jurassic Park and The Shawshank Redemption, next to the latest and greatest blockbusters, like Barbie and Oppenheimer and long-running series like Mission Impossible and Harry Potter. 

When it first launched, Binge didn't have quite as many TV shows as Foxtel Now. Lots of new releases and classics from the back catalogue were missing. But it seems these days that Binge has become the premiere streaming destination for anything Foxtel can get it's hands on and we're all better for it. 

The biggest hope for Binge was that it would replace Foxtel Now entirely, but a few years out from launch, we've still got both options for some reason.

That's a shame because, despite a few slight shortcomings, the Binge user interface is a feast for the eyes and an infinitely better experience to using Foxtel Now. 

Any chef worth their salt knows that thoughtful presentation is just as important as preparation. The same goes for a decent streaming service. It can have cracker content, and tempting exclusives, but if the user experience isn't up to scratch, users will be lining up at Pirate Bay to get their fill (or seeking out other means to stream Max.)

The overall sheen of Binge passes the taste test. It's got notes of Kayo Sports, and even an exotic dash of Max, in its design. For the most part, using the Binge app is intuitive and mirrors the simple interface of Netflix and others before it.

What made Kayo Sports so special wasn't just the sports content it housed but also the innovative streaming features it introduced, like SplitView multi-screen streaming, live match statistics, and spoiler-free sports streaming.

Binge does have a few exciting perks, like Binge Centres, content hubs including entire movie and TV collections, and a fun Surprise Me! function that selects an episode or movie at random. But they're nowhere near as innovative as what we've come to expect from Kayo Sports.