Streaming TV Comparison

If you don’t know your Netflix from Quickflix, let us give you the low-down on streaming and downloading TV shows and movies in New Zealand.

The arrival of Netflix on Kiwi shores has inspired competition from local competitors like Neon and Lightbox. This is great news for Kiwi consumers as competition breeds better value and stronger offerings and as they say, variety is the spice of life. However, the sudden torrent of on-demand streaming services means your flooded with choices. And with the likes of Disney and Warner Bros. likely heading to New Zealand in the near future, you’ll be up to your knees in streaming services before you know it.

Whether you’re looking to watch the latest television shows on a budget, willing to pay the price for premium content or you’re more than happy sticking with free-to-air, we’ve compared every Online TV streaming video-on-demand (SVOD) service side-by-side below.

We’ll show you where to catch the latest Game of Thrones without the ads, how to binge the entire Breaking Bad collection in high-definition and how much you’ll pay for each service.

Internet Television is televised content that is delivered to all sorts of connected devices, from personal computers to smartphones to video game consoles.

Also referred to as “IPTV’ or ‘streaming’, this technology enables viewers to watch television shows, movies, news and sports online.

The streamed content is viewed through a website or native application that gives the viewer access to a live stream or library of television shows and movies.

With a steady internet connection and compatible device, there is little difference from what traditional broadcast options offer.

Why is streaming taking over? Convenience. While you can live stream TV shows and movies as they happen, the main draw of streaming television is the thousands and thousands of classic movies and recent blockbusters available with the press of a button.

The wide selection of compatible devices also means you don’t have to wait until you’re home on the couch to catch up the latest news and premium TV shows. Streaming and internet TV can be accessed from your office computer, from your smartphone on the commute home and when you finally put your feet up of an evening? You can continue what you were watching on your Smart TV without missing a beat.

For a long time, Kiwis had to rely on Sky for their television and entertainment needs, but services like Netflix are shaking up the entertainment landscape. Services like Netflix and Prime Video peddle convenience and flexible streaming plans (a language not spoken by traditional cable providers).

These services also produce their own high-quality content (Stranger Things, House of Cards and Jack Ryan just to name a few), meaning you don’t have to fork out full-price for high-quality entertainment. Thankfully, services like New Zealand’s own Lightbox are playing catch-up and fast (Lightbox released its first original productions in 2018) so the on-demand loungeroom invasion has inspired local content providers to do better.

There are many reasons to compare on-demand streaming services. For instance, Neon offers primo television like Game of Thrones and Westworld but comes at a pretty penny whereas catch-up services like ThreeNow and TVNZ OnDemand offer smaller on-demand libraries but won’t cost you a cent.