Streaming service Stan on-track for 100k sign-ups

Early adoption of the Stan video streaming service has "exceeded expectations," Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood said today.

During a results presentation for the company's 2015 first half results, Hywood said the video-on-demand service was on-track for 100,000 sign-ups by mid-March.

Stan is a joint venture with Nine Entertainment. Each party in August last year committed $50 million to the joint venture, which is led by CEO Mike Sneesby.

The service formally launched on 25 January this year. It currently offers a one-month free trial period.

Its launch came as the Australian video streaming market heats up, with the impending local launch next month of US company Netflix.

Fetch TV earlier this month announced a partnership with Netflix, which will make the service available on the company's set-top boxes. The deal may mean that Netflix usage is unmetered on some ISP plans.

Networking vendor Juniper has previously predicted that Netflix's local debut and consequent traffic growth will boost ISP spending on infrastructure in Australia.

Netflix and Stan will both go head to head with Foxtel's Presto streaming service. Foxtel is a joint venture between Telstra and News Corporation.

ASX-listed company Quickflix is another player in the local streaming market. The company, which also offers DVD rentals, announced that it had 136,670 customers (including free trial subscriptions) as of the end of December.

In late January Quickflix said had more than 140,000 customers, with more than 120,000 of them paying subscribers.

Fairfax reported a net profit after tax of $26.3 million for the half year to December 2014. The company reported revenue of $943.3 million, down 12.9 per cent from the corresponding period, and EBITDA of $162.4 million.