One of the last holdouts for 4K in streaming TV is finally getting it in just a matter of weeks.
Anyone buying a TV probably knows that what they buy will come with a minimum of 4K as its resolution, but what they don’t know is that not every streaming service supports the resolution.
Something you may have to pay extra for, 4K is typically the more costly extra while HD and Full HD are usually the default. It’s not as if 4K Ultra HD is actually new, either. Rather, it’s just a technology some services have been slow to adapt to.
Some offer it out of the box, such as Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video, which will deliver a 4K stream if it has one without needing you to choose. Meanwhile, other players such as Netflix and Stan will actually make you choose, bundling 4K in with its more premium plans.
In short, spend more and you’ll get the luxury of high-resolution video for your entertainment, which often also comes alongside Dolby Atmos audio, as well.
Back in 2020 when Foxtel launched Binge, it too launched without 4K, even though 4K wasn’t new at that time, either, a fact we noted in our review. And for the past three years, the streaming service that delivered Foxtel without the necessary cable box or packages has also managed to stay without the better resolution that 4K offers.
But seeing as though Foxtel has offered 4K for around five years, particularly in sports streaming, it seems as though the media giant is ready to launch 4K on Binge, as well, targeting late-October for the launch.
This week, Binge has noted it will be launching 4K on both its standard and premium tiers of the service, rolling it out on “selected devices only”, though not saying what those are. We asked, but our guess is it will be anything that supports 4K streaming, including the Apple TV 4K, Amazon Fire TV equivalents with 4K, Chromecast with Google TV, and 4K TVs with the Binge app ready to go.
In terms of pricing, that’ll see Binge 4K costing a minimum of $16 monthly in Australia for the standard ad-free service supported on two devices for simultaneous streaming when it launches in late-October. Meanwhile, the basic $10 plan will miss out, running on one device at a time and getting ads.
“We know customers love streaming entertainment in 4K, especially big production shows like House of the Dragon and The Last of Us which is why I am so pleased that we can now provide this feature,” said Alison Hubert-Burns, Executive Director of Binge.
Alongside the release, Binge says all its customers will gain access to CNN International, MSNBC, and Bloomberg TV, global news channels that are live and available to everyone using the service from today.
