At the 2014 Australian Broadcasting Digital Media Summit in Sydney on February 24, Foxtel CEO Richard Freudenstein announced that Presto will be available from March 13 of this year. Presto will offer movie lovers a monthly pass to stream Foxtel Movies, both live and on demand, via PC and Mac computers and compatible iPads for AU$19.99 a month.
Presto will be available as a special offer to new customers for AU$4.99 in their first month. Subscribers can connect to Presto in minutes and are free to come and go from the service on a monthly basis, with no lock-in contract, and without the need to buy through a basic tier.
When announced last September, the subscription video-on-demand service had been due to launch before the end of 2013 with a monthly fee of AU$24.99, but it was delayed due to “technical issues”, as reported by the Australian Financial Review.
Presto’s launch comes as Australia’s appetite for access to streamed content, delivered over the internet to different devices, continues its massive growth. The new movie service will feature an intuitive interface and will deliver the best in local and international movies including curated collections, recommendations and critics’ reviews.
All Presto movies are ad-break-free and the service offers films from all seven Foxtel Movies live channels including: Foxtel Movies Premiere, Foxtel Movies Comedy, Foxtel Movies Romance, Foxtel Movies Thriller, Foxtel Movies Action, Foxtel Movies Family, and Foxtel Movies Masterpiece, as well as on demand movies from these channels.
Richard Freudenstein said, “We’re thrilled to announce that the countdown is on for the launch of Presto. Starting March 13, Australian movie lovers will have access to as many movies as they want from a massive library of cinematic hits for a price per week equivalent to what they’d pay for just one standard iTunes movie rental.
“We’ve had fantastic feedback since our initial announcement and anticipation from Australians, hungry for a new way to experience great movies, when and where they want, and free from ad-breaks, continues to grow. We’re looking forward to Presto taking the stage in coming weeks.”
Foxtel Movies offers the best from all the major studios and key independents including 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.
