10 Play streaming app review

Remember 10 All Access? I sure didn't (well, not by name) and had to go searching to see if I'd dreamt it up. But, no, there it was in all of its past shame: a $10-a-month streaming service with just under 150 TV shows and nothing else. Yikes. In retrospect, it was evidently a placeholder for Paramount Plus, which fares a lot better. Nowadays, users can mercifully access Network 10 content via 10 Play.

At least, it used to be called 10 Play. Or Tenplay, if you want its older, older name. Nowadays, Network 10 content is accessible digitally via 10. To avoid confusion – and to get away from the HBO name change shenanigans – I'll keep referring to 10 as 10 Play throughout this review.

10 Play is the digital app version of what you can find on an antenna-connected tele when you're browsing through Network 10 content. In terms of 10-branded viewing, there are live channels for 10, 10 Drama and 10 Comedy. But you also get on-demand content, plus 10 Play live channels dedicated to bingeable content.

10 Play is compatible with a range of TVs, including Samsung and Hisense. Here's the full range of TVs and set-top boxes that are compatible with 10 Play:

• LG smart TVs (2018 or newer)
• Samsung smart TVs (2018 or newer)
• Hisense smart TVs (VIDAA OS, 2021 or newer)
• Apple TV (tvOS 12.0 or newer)
• Android/Google TV (OS 9.0 or newer)
• Amazon Fire TV (Fire OS 5 or newer)
• Foxtel IQ3, IQ4, IQ5 and Hubbl
• Fetch TV (generation 3 or newer)

You can also install 10 Play on these devices that you either connect directly (HDMI cable) or cast from (mobile devices and computers):

• Xbox One, Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X consoles
• iPhone and iPad (iOS 13.0 or newer)
• Android phones and tablets (Android 9 or newer)
• Firefox browser (version 63 or newer)
• Chrome browser (version 74 or newer)
• Safari browser (version 12 or newer)
• Edge browser (version 16 or newer)

10 Play is completely free to use, from sign-up to streaming. Just create an account and you can use it to stream on multiple devices simultaneously. As a free service – you probably guessed it – you'll have to put up with ads, and 10 Play offers up quite a lot of those to compensate for the $0 cost.

The 10 Play user interface is more functional than inspired. Jumping between web browser and Android app during my testing time, the mobile experience is the pick of the two. It has a familiar layout for anyone who's used other streaming services, with a single promoted bit of content up the top and a vertical scrolling layout that leads to more content carousels.

10 Play live content is the first carousel, followed logically by one for "10's Biggest Shows". Whatever that means. After that, there's a bit of a guess as to what you like across individual recommendations and bingeable content. From there, it's the familiar streaming carousels based on different content categories.

On a PC web browser (Chrome specifically), it's a less clean design, with prominent sidebar advertising banners (mind those misclicks) and a bunch of clunky menu items up top. Take the 'Shows' tab, for instance. Clicking on that opens a drop-down menu with a few pictured recommendations, but most of the drop-down is full of text: either featured TV shows or genres. You'll have to get to the bottom of the genre list to just see every show available.

There isn't a dedicated menu item for movies, which is odd. You're better off scrolling for inspiration, favouriting shows to (maybe) help the recommendations, or using the search bar to find something specific you know is on 10 Play. It's not the worst user interface I've encountered for a streaming service, but it's far from what we've reasonably come to expect from Netflix, Stan and Prime Video.

Playing content on 10 Play is relatively straightforward and mostly automated, but I had issues with the auto quality setting, which alternated between SD and HD during playback. It doesn’t help that the HD content looks more 720p than 1080p (Full HD), either. HD resolution is fine on smaller screens, but 1080p is standard and a better minimum for larger screens.

Because there isn't a dedicated movie tab on 10 Play, movies are effectively categorised as 'Shows' by 10 Play. Effectively, you're either reliant on the movies carousel, searching for something you know is on the service, or stumbling on it. Neither option is great.

Searching for "movies" didn't actually offer any movies, while manually replacing "shows" with "movies" in the 10 Play website address only offered a generic page that acknowledged the presence of movies on the platform but didn't display any viewing options. Hmm. At the time of review, I had to scroll to find a "Movie Night" carousel with around 30 options. Admittedly, while some of them were duds, there were some newer winners – Weird, Babylon, Ferrari, and Smile – mixed in with older classics like Shutter Island, The Adventures of Tintin, Stardust, and Galaxy Quest.

As you'd hope with the odd choices for movie presentation, 10 Play's TV show offering has better representation. For kids shows, the young uns might be interested in Paw Patrol, SpongeBob SquarePants, or the 1987 run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Older audiences will likely find something to laugh at from Friends, The Big Bang Theory, South Park, The Middle, or Taskmaster.

If drama is more your speed, 10 Play has the full run of Charmed, Twin Peaks, and the newer Fake. Shows like Elsbeth, though, only have select episodes. The same is true for crime capers NCIS, FBI and FBI: International, as well as The Brokenwood Mysteries (though the latter has a respectable eight seasons). Using The Brokenwood Mysteries as an ad example, you can expect an initial ad break, followed by seven additional ad interruptions during a 90-ish-minute episode, which is pretty reasonable.

10 Play live content is promoted above its on-demand offering. If you're a fan of set-and-forget viewing – for foreground or background watching – 10 Play live content is worth checking out. There are a lot of channels in the 10 Play TV guide, starting with the dedicated 10 channels – 10, 10 Drama, and 10 Comedy – before the options break off into focused offerings.

Get genre-based live channels with the likes of Haunt TV, Nature Time, or Movie Sphere. Otherwise, there are dedicated live channels for popular shows like South Park, Survivor, and 8 out of 10 Cats. 10 Play's live sports offering isn't as impressive as 7play for free services, but there's still a bit here to like.

Football (of the soccer variety) is promoted prominently, though it's best to check which matches are played live and free on 10 Play and which ones you'll find on Paramount Plus, particularly if it involves the Matildas or Socceroos. There are also other sports on 10 Play: F1, MotoGP, and NBA being the most prominent.