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Quickflix today launched Australia’s first subscription-based video-on-demand streaming service, offering customers a changing collection of movies each month for AU$14.95.
Different from online video rental services like iTunes and BigPond Movies, the Quickflix subscription service will maintain a library of movies for a limited time, which customers can watch without restriction while available. Quickflix CEO Chris Taylor estimates there will be approximately 300 movies in this library at any given time, with new titles replacing old titles as time progresses. All videos included in the library is available on demand.
“These deals are ground-breaking deals in this market,” said Taylor. He told CNET Australia that Quickflix expects to have more than 1000 licensed titles by the end of the year through content providers including Warner Bros, Sony Pictures Television and Lakeshore Entertainment. The number of licences will grow as Quickflix engages with other major studios in the near future.
“We sell ourselves on being accessible, in that you don’t need to buy a broadband plan or be tied to a telco or take a bunch of content that you don’t want,” said Taylor.
The Quickflix subscription service will be available first on Sony Bravia TVs and Blu-ray players, with the PlayStation 3 to follow later this year. The service will also be available via PC and Mac desktop browsers, with a special viewing mode available for when customers connect a PC or Mac system to a TV.
The subscription model will be one of three content delivery mechanisms in place for Quickflix in 2012, complementing its current DVD-by-mail service and preceding a pay-per-view model for latest release titles expected to launch in the first quarter of 2012.
Competitor FetchTV also launched a video-on-demand service this week in partnership with Optus, called MeTV. The service includes a feature called Movie Box, which collects 30 movies each month for download by customers, refreshing seven titles each week. Movie Box is free for FetchTV customers who subscribe to the service through ISPs Optus, iiNet and Internode, among others, costing AU$29.95 per month.
