Stan TV review

Stan, Australia’s homegrown subscription streaming service, launched in January 2015 six months ahead of looming landscape-shaker, Netflix. Its huge on-demand library houses over 2.500 movies and over 700 TV shows, which can be consumed on an array of devices: most major smart TVs, PS3, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Apple TV, Fetch TV, Telstra TV, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV Stick Hubbl, Android and iOS phones and tablets, and web browsers on PC and Mac. Let’s take a look at how the local punter shapes up in our Stan review.

Stan offers three core plan tiers, all of which offer decent value, with prices ranging between $12 per month for the Basic plan and $21 per month for the Premium plan.

The cheapest allows for standard definition streaming and offline viewing on a single screen and costs $12. For $16 you can stream in high definition on three screens simultaneously, with three devices allowed to download content for offline viewing. Finally, for $21 you can stream on four screens in 4K, with offline downloads available for up to five devices.

No, in the leadup to Stan's 2024 Paris Olympics coverage, the Aussie streamer ditched its 30-day free trial offer. Below is a small selection of free trials for streaming services in Australia. 

The Stan app’s attractive dashboard hides a number of niggling limitations. Like Netflix, content is displayed as large thumbnails that are intuitive and easy to parse; unlike Netflix, content is not catered to your personal tastes via a magical algorithm DJ. As such, you’ll see a lot of stuff you have zero interest in surfaced to your homepage (aside from the occasional “Because you watched X” suggestion section).

This, coupled with the fact that Stan’s horizontal genre rows don’t loop back around on themselves carousel-style, instead reaching an endpoint, means it can take an age to return to something you initially skipped over.

It also needs to be said that I’ve encountered far more bugs on the Stan app than I have with Netflix, from relatively minor stuff like losing my place in a paused show or across devices, to bigger issues like hard crashes requiring reboots. These don’t occur often enough to caution people away from getting Stan, but be warned you’ll need to deal with the odd irritation.

Stan’s library is undoubtedly impressive. Although it produces few original series and movies in-house, Stan invests heavily in exclusive Australian streaming rights, with licensed prestige television forming a key part of the catalogue.

Stan has wrangled Kevin Costner's insanely popular Western drama Yellowstone, as well as a decent selection of Doctor Who and Noah Hawley's long-running crime caper anthology Fargo. 

Critically acclaimed Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul is a Stan exclusive. City on a Hill starring Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge is also streaming (but only one season), Billions and Sherlock all call Stan home, as do Hacks, Happy Valley and Alone. It’s a quality line-up of big-budget serials.

Stan also performs admirably in the classic TV comedy department. Parks and Recreation, Frasier (two seasons), Peep Show and The Office are available for nostalgic folks with ample free time.

In the movie aisle, Stan houses a similar selection to what you’ll find elsewhere. New release flicks are few and far between, but recent award-contenders like Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest are available to stream. Stan-produced Aussie horror Relic sit alongside older favourites like Jurassic Park, The Matrix, Heat, Dredd, Pulp Fiction, Love Actually and Forrest Gump. And if you’re feeling sick of Hollywood, there’s an extensive selection of world movies. It’s not a huge library, but it is diverse and packed with favourites.

Stan certainly has its feet dipped in the 4K pool, but only tentatively. Every James Bond movie is available in UHD glory, so if you’ve always wanted to peer closely at the pores on a young Sean Connery’s face, you can. No judgment on my part.

Alongside the Bond bounty, there’s an eclectic smattering of recent and older movies like Arrival, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, A Quiet Place, Speed and Groundhog Day. The 4K TV selection is also somewhat limited, bur pretty much all Stan exlcusives are streaming in 4K, such as The Tourist, Yellowstone, Population 11 and Gangs of London. 

Although the 4K picture quality is sharp and clear, in our tests Stan was far less successful than Netflix at hitting a stable 4K resolution quickly. Running on a very good cable connection that averages 110Mbps down, the first movie I streamed didn’t hit 4K at all after letting it run for five minutes. Strangely, this problem was solved by switching “auto” mode off and forcing Stan to only play in 4K (an option, it should be pointed out, that isn’t available on Netflix.)

The bigger issue is a subtle but consistent frame rate stutter on certain devices. This was noticeable on both the Samsung TV app and the Xbox app, but not on the PlayStation app, so I’d recommend watching on that if you have the option.

Stan also falls a little short in the colour department. Unlike Netflix’s 4K content, Stan does a bad job of telegraphing content that plays in High Dynamic Range (HDR) or Dolby Vision. Certain titles do appear to support HDR televisions, but there's no easy way to find HDR-supported content. 

One of Stan’s biggest points of difference is Australian content, no doubt because of its local ownership and audience. Hamish & Andy are here in abundance, as are Channel Nine dramas like McLeod’s Daughters, Doctor Doctor, and House Husbands, not to mention every season of minor phenomenon Underbelly. Despite the existence of ABC iView, there’s also a bunch of ABC shows, including Upper Middle Bogan and Four Corners specials.

Speaking of local productions, credit where it's due, Stan has committed to a good number of originals made here in Australia. Still, results may vary. Early originals like the Wolf Creek TV show and a TV adaptation of Romper Stomper are just okay tributes to their successful cinematic counterparts. But more recently, Stan has had success with more lighthearted Aussie fare, like the heartwarming series Bump and the mystery crime caper Population 11. 

Stan will also deliver the upcoming Nicolas Cage flick The Surfer; a quirky psychological thriller set in Australia; and for that, we thank Stan. 

Stan is a good service with the potential to be a fantastic one. Its library has hit a bit of a dry patch, particularly the of licensed prestige television but there's still some huge TV tickets here. 

Stan does fall behind Netflix in a few key areas, though. It crashes and bugs out far more often, and the UI is less intuitive and responsive. 4K picture quality is also noticeably less vibrant than Netflix’s equivalent.

And, as big as Stan’s library is, it just doesn’t produce the zeitgeist-dominating original content Netflix is known for. There’s no in-house equivalent to Stranger Things or Squid Game, etc., which are arguably the main reasons to subscribe to Netflix.

While we give the honours to Netflix overall, for a local alternative battling a global Giant, Stan is capable of punching above its weight at times.

As for how Stan fares in comparison to the litany of other subscription streaming services available in Australia, see how it stacks up below. For our money, we reckon it’s hard to beat Amazon Prime Video.