Summer concert season looks a little different this year, but don’t worry: we’ve saved the best seat in the house for you. Thanks to Telstra Plus, you can skip the line and go VIP to our series of Front Room live shows with some of Australia’s biggest music acts.

Telstra Plus Front Room is the new home of exclusive livestream music sets from your favourite Australian artists, and we’re starting big!

In the lead-up to Christmas, we’ll be bringing you 40-minute intimate gigs from Ruel and Guy Sebastian. And it won’t just be a watch-along either. You’ll be able to interact with the gig from your couch, with the ability to send questions to your favourite stars.

And to make the Front Room concert even more rewarding, we’ll be kicking off a competition where members can win a group virtual meet and greet with their favourite artist and 1 million Telstra Plus points. Visit Telstra Plus for your chance to win.

If you’re not a member of Telstra Plus yet, don’t worry. It’s easy. Just head to Telstra.com to join*.

Telstra Plus is our rewards program that gives you exclusive benefits, just for paying your bill. We recently refreshed our reward tiers to give you even more for being a member.

Since launching Telstra Plus, we have hosted a range of benefits. Benefits like earning 10 points for every dollar when you make an eligible payment that can be redeemed on the latest technology and services, as well as discounted tickets to movies and sporting events and pre-sale access. This now also includes one-of-a-kind experiences like our Front Room shows. It’s all part of making being a Telstra customer that little more rewarding!

Check out who we’ve got in store, and when you can tune in.

Ruel

At the age of 18, Ruel’s resume reads like that of a seasoned global superstar and the Sydney-bred, London-born vocalist is quickly becoming one of this generation’s most influential artists. With half a billion streams, over 1.5 million followers on Instagram, three sold-out world tours and five Platinum plaques under his belt, Ruel is a trailblazer who’s far exceeded the omnipresent hype and overwhelming fan frenzy that surrounds him globally.

At the tail end of 2018, Ruel also won the Breakout Artist award at the ARIAs, becoming the youngest artist to do so. He quickly re-emerged in 2019 with single ‘Painkiller’, which went 2x Platinum. Ruel is the youngest artist to sell out the iconic Sydney Opera House (twice!).

Watch Ruel

Guy Sebastian

Singer Songwriter and Producer, Guy Sebastian is undoubtedly one of Australia’s most popular and successful male artists. Guy has achieved over 30 x Platinum singles sales in Australia and well over 7,000,000 combined units sold worldwide. Guy is the only Australian artist in ARIA chart history to boast six #1 singles and three #1 albums including his critically acclaimed new #1 ARIA Album T. R. U. T. H. His global hit ‘Battle Scars’ with Lupe Fiasco reached #1 on the US R&B/Hip Hop digital chart and peaked at #11 on the US iTunes Chart.

Guy is the winner of six ARIA Awards including: Song Of The Year (‘Choir’), Best Pop (Armageddon Album), Best Live Act (the Get Along Tour) Best Video (‘Choir’ ) and two Highest Selling Single awards (‘Angels Brought Me Here’ and ‘Who’s That Girl’). In June 2019, Sebastian was recognized as a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia for his outstanding community efforts to the Australia via his work with The Sebastian Foundation & Sony Foundation. His popularity across his recent smash hits has spawned multi-platinum awards for his hits ‘Before I Go’, ‘Choir’, ‘Standing With You’ and ‘Love On Display’ with these tracks & the album remaining at the top of the charts across radio, streaming and ARIA official charts. Guy recently announced his national T.R.U.T.H. tour for November/ December 2021 which is selling out fast!

Date: 17 December 2020

Time: From 7:00PM AEDT

Watch Guy Sebastian

Things you need to know

* Eligibility criteria apply

Telstra Plus has been rewarding our loyal customers for over a year now. In that time we’ve given billions of points and countless membership benefits to our customers, underscored by the performance of Australia’s best mobile network and Australia’s largest 5G network*. Now there are even more rewards available with a number of new benefits in our tiers for you to access.

Telstra Plus has rewards available to access beyond the connectivity and technology you pay for in your service. We know that there’s a lot of choice when it comes to telcos these days, and ensuring you get more bang for your buck is paramount.

The new Gold standard

Ahead of the giving season, Telstra Plus is rewarding your family with even more to enjoy. We’re introducing a range of new rewards, bonuses and special offers as part of your existing Telstra Plus membership, especially for our Gold tier customers.

We know that getting the best entertainment experience at home is important, and with the Gold tier, it’s more rewarding than ever when it comes to the number of benefits. Now as a Gold member, if you don’t have a Telstra TV, let us know and we’ll send you one, on us**, as well as 50% off when you rent or buy selected Telstra TV Box Office content using your points.

It’s all part of making sure your time on the couch is as rewarding as possible, just for being a Telstra customer. And to make sure you get the best seat in the house when you’re not at home, Gold members will now have priority access to pre-sales for selected events. That means you’ll get access to tickets up to three hours earlier. And you’ll get access to exclusive Gold-only promotions and experiences.

We’ll also be here to help if you have a query or an issue to sort out thanks to the new Gold VIP service benefits as part of your Telstra Plus membership. Gold members will get VIP service when you message us using My Telstra app. We can help with your services, home tech and getting the most out of your Gold benefits.

Most of these new benefits are inclusive of the existing member benefits Telstra Plus already nabs you. This includes – but is not limited to – discounted tickets to movies and sporting events and earlier access to selected concert pre-sales and offers.

Silver customers are also going to get a taste of Gold membership in the new update, with access to 30% off a new Telstra TV when you use your Telstra Plus points**, as well as 25% off when you rent or buy selected Telstra TV Box Office content when using your points.

We’re making these changes effective 10 November, so you can start enjoying the new rewards Telstra Plus has to offer, just for being a member.

Giving you more, more often

When we launched Telstra Plus, we offered a range of benefits that made being a customer feel a little more rewarding. Benefits like earn 10 points for every dollar when you make an eligible payment that can be redeemed on the latest technology and services.

In the 18 months we’ve been offering these benefits to Telstra Plus customers, we’ve had over two and a half million members sign up. Now it’s time to make the program even more rewarding with new benefits and rewards for your loyalty.

Joining Telstra Plus is free and simple. Just head to Telstra.com to join***.

Things you need to know

* 5G now rolling out in selected areas [and available with a compatible device]

** Subject to stock availability

*** Eligibility criteria apply

“Good evening, and welcome to television”. Those were the first words uttered on Australian television airwaves in 1956. For 64 years, we’ve been laughing, crying and shouting at our televisions. The stories got bigger, as did the screens, and everyone has their own show. This is how we got here.

Before there was streaming; before TV had profiles, and before anyone knew what 4K even meant, there was the simple idea that good, entertaining and informative content could be beamed into people’s homes via the airwaves. As we celebrate the launch of BINGE – Australia’s unturnoffable streaming service and home of premium, award-winning content – we wanted to look back at just how we got to this place of incredible small-screen storytelling. Find out how you can get a year of BINGE on Telstra.

Welcome to television

Bruce Gyngell was his name.

The man who spoke those warm and welcoming words to Australians on September 16, 1956. At 7pm, he appeared for the very first time, even credited as the “First Host” on the screen.

He wore a suit and a bowtie, and viewers in Sydney and Melbourne were warmly ushered into a new age of modern information and entertainment.

Television was more than just a fly-by-night fad, however. Australians had been shown the possibilities of wireless images beamed into their homes at a number of demonstrations over the previous two decades.

Experimental transmissions were happening in Brisbane back in 1934, and others around the nation were able to see local demonstrations of television in town halls throughout the country in the 1940s.

Demonstrations aside, however, come September of 1956 not everyone was able to see Mr Gyngell welcome them into the future.

At the time, a television cost hundreds of pounds – back when Australia paid in pounds, of course. By the 1960s, you could still expect to pay the equivalent of $6000 for a 23-inch black and white set for your home. While some TVs still cost that today, you can expect to get a whole lot more for your money.

So, instead of watching from home, many gathered outside store windows to watch the future come to pass. Hundreds congregated under a sign outside the famous windows of Myer in Melbourne Emporium which heralded the arrival of television. That very set is now on display as part of an exhibition of Myer’s history.

The golden age

The next decade saw Australian television go through an incredible golden age. Australia’s TV legends were minted in this time, and many of them are still with us today.

Graham Kennedy, Bert Newton and more came to delight Aussies in their homes every night. Their class popularised television formats we still enjoy today, from quiz shows to talk shows and everything in-between.

Sport and sport analysis came to our screens thanks to World of Sport (later Wide World of Sport), and AFL games were televised for the very first time.

As the price of televisions slowly fell and more sets landed in homes, Aussies were enjoying the collective experience of content. Sports matches were enjoyed together set against the backdrop of the Aussie barbecue. Serialised shows were discussed over the water cooler. We came together to experience defining moments in our history.

The power of television was truly demonstrated in 1969 when man first set foot on the Moon. NASA struck a deal with Australia to help broadcast from the Moon, live, through Australian equipment, including the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station just outside Canberra and the Parkes Radio Telescope in regional New South Wales, as well as the control facility in Sydney owned by the Overseas Telecommunications Commission – Telstra before Telstra.

After the lander had returned home, and several more missions had been broadcast for the world to see, television saw its next great shake-up in 1975 when colour burst onto screens for the first time. It was so revolutionary that it had even been announced by Prime Minister William McMahon three whole years earlier.

As Australia was late to the game on colour, many cashed-up households had already started buying colour televisions as early as 1969. But it wouldn’t be until mid-1975 when the Pakenham races were broadcast in colour that Australians first saw the new dimension of television.

After that, they were hooked. Television was everywhere, with Aussies buying colour TVs faster than just about anywhere in the world, thanks to the availability of content.

The internet, televised

The 1980s and 1990s saw Australians import a flood of television content from international audiences. Everything from Blind Date and Perfect Match through to Jeopardy! and international sport all got a run on the Aussie airwaves.

We also exported a good chunk of television, with the ever-popular exploits of Ramsay Street and Summer Bay (Neighbours and Home and Away, respectively) captivating audiences from the 1970s to this very day.

The 1990s brought with it an explosion of international news content, as the first Gulf War was televised day and night via channels like CNN. Aussies would be able to receive this programming for the first time as subscription television like Austar and Foxtel came to town, offering nearly 60 paid channels compared just a handful on free-to-air.

It wasn’t until after the turn of the new millennium that Australian TV would change forever all over again: the internet had come to change television as we knew it.

Late-2006 brought with it our incredible Next G network, that allowed for 3G broadcasts that put television in people’s pockets. With our long-time partner Foxtel, we helped launch Foxtel by Mobile: 33 channels of live news and entertainment, optimised for the small, small screen. The service exploded, and users were limited to just 200 minutes of viewing per month at the time.

This was one of the first instances of the internet coming to television. But it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

Free-to-air players would soon have their own platforms that would slowly evolve to bring more and more entertainment to audiences over the top of traditional broadcast television services, just as services like Netflix and Stan opened for customers.

By 2018, Netflix had over 10 million users in Australia, spurred on by a mix of original content and the ease of access from devices like the Telstra TV. With the Telstra TV, you can consolidate your streaming services into a single box, and unlike TVs in the 1960s, it wouldn’t cost you 5x your average weekly wage.

In fact, the advent of cheap and available services and devices has led to an explosion in content consumption. With hundreds of millions around the world now able to watch content, there has been a new golden age of content.

Creators like the minds behind Game of Thrones, Chernobyl, and Veep now have the latitude to produce movie-quality content for the small screen. This premium content can be consumed just about anywhere via just about any device.

The idea of “channels” no longer dictates viewing habits. Everyone has a favourite streaming service and everyone has their own show.

Australians are now untethered from their lounge rooms, with the ability to watch content on the bus; on the beach with our fast new 5G offering on selected plans with a compatible device in a 5G coverage area. Telstra is rolling out 5G in selected areas.

More content, less cash

With the launch of BINGE, this movie-quality TV content is available more readily than ever. With BINGE, you get more flexibility and access to entertainment both at home and on the go, without having to pay for the content you don’t watch.

BINGE and Telstra Plus go hand-in-hand to get you the best TV on offer. As part of our unmatched sport and entertainment product mix, we’re offering customers* three months access to BINGE Standard on us, while members of the Telstra Plus loyalty program will be eligible for between three and nine months additional complimentary access.

That means if you’re an eligible Telstra Plus customer, you could have up to a year of BINGE content just waiting for you to sign up.

BINGE has three different subscriptions to choose from and customers can change between them whenever they need, plus cancel any time.

To start, BINGE Basic is $10/month, streaming in standard quality with one stream at a time. Step up to BINGE Standard for $14/month and you’ll be able to stream in HD quality on two screens simultaneously, and BINGE Premium ($18/month) is for family households with HD streaming and four streams at once.

Wherever you are, welcome to television all over again.

_{*excl. prepaid and business customers}

Things you need to know

_{BINGE Offer: 3 months BINGE Standard subscription available to Telstra customers with a consumer post-paid mobile or home internet plan. Redeem by 18 Jan 2021 through http://hub.telstra.com.au/BINGE or on a Telstra TV.}

_{Telstra Plus bonus months: In addition to the BINGE Base Offer available to you, Telstra Plus Members are eligible for an additional 3 months. Silver Tier members are eligible for an additional 6 months and Gold Tier members are eligible for an additional 9 months. Redeem through http://hub.telstra.com.au/BINGE.}

_{BINGE Standard monthly fees (currently $14/mth) apply after offer period ends unless you change or cancel. Offer can be applied to: BINGE Premium (for $4/mth during offer period) or BINGE Basic (for $0/mth during offer period). After offer period, standard monthly prices apply (currently BINGE Premium $18/mth, BINGE Basic $10/mth), unless you change your pack or cancel before the end of your offer period.}

_{Billing: Not compatible with any other BINGE offers. Not compatible with some third party billing platforms. Telstra billing not available for existing BINGE subscribers on another payment method. One redemption per customer account. Requires internet & compatible device and sign up to BINGE Terms of Service. Data charges apply.}

_{Kayo Sports: Offer available to new & returning Kayo customers on a Telstra consumer post-paid plan. Eligible customers must sign up through http://hub.telstra.com.au/kayo or on Telstra TV. Standard monthly fees apply after offer period unless you cancel. One redemption per customer account. Not available in conjunction with any other Kayo offers. Redeem by 30 September 2020. Requires internet & compatible device. Data charges may apply. Event availability correct at time of publishing and subject to change.}

_{Telstra Plus: Must be 18+ with an active service. Excludes enterprise and corporate accounts. Points are earned on payment of Telstra bill or pre-paid recharge (excl. outright purchases, refunds, credits & late payment fees). Points expire 3 years from earning. Marketing opt-in required (preferences can be changed). Exit program anytime.}

For over 100 years, we’ve been helping Australian small businesses connect and thrive. We’ve helped connect them to opportunity and worked side-by-side to create new ways to engage with customers. As we have stuck by small business, they too have stuck by us, and I’m excited to launch a new way to thank them for that loyalty with our new Telstra Plus program for SMBs.

Last year, we opened up our Telstra Plus loyalty program to consumer customers. At the time, our CEO, Andy Penn, recognised that Australians now have more choice than ever when it comes to their telco provider.

Since then, 22 billion points have been earned by our customers, and everyone is telling us how much they love redeeming them for the latest tech, movie and concert tickets. That’s why we want to reward the millions who continue to choose Telstra, especially when it comes to our small and medium business customers.

Telstra Plus for SMBs builds on what makes the program great, giving small business customers the same opportunities to earn points on every dollar they spend toward their monthly Telstra bill to put towards the latest technology and experiences. That’s our way of showing appreciation for your business and rewarding you for loyalty over time.

Furthermore, Business tier customers are eligible for VIP support by way of receiving three months of Telstra Business Tech Service on us, as well as access to discounted movie, concerts, sport and art tickets as well as priority pre-sale tickets.

And to add a sweetener, Telstra small business customers who sign up to be a member of Telstra Plus between 25 February and 9 April 2020 will nab 10,000 bonus points.

Along with the new, expanded Telstra Plus program, we’ve also launched our Telstra Business Services initiative. It’s all part of our major revamp to provide businesses with the end-to-end tools and services they need to thrive.

Check out Telstra Plus today!

Figuring out what to get your loved ones for Christmas can be a challenge, but we already know what we’re getting you. Over the month of December, we’ll be giving away a share of 25 million Telstra Plus rewards points to our Telstra Plus members to wish you a merry Christmas. Here’s how to get your hands on the points.

We believe tech can help bring people together at Christmas. That’s why we want to celebrate our Telstra Plus members by giving them the chance to win the tech of their dreams from the Telstra Plus rewards store. From December 1^st-25^th, we’ll be getting into the festive spirit by giving away millions of Telstra Plus points to our members.

Telstra Plus is our rewards program which gives you the opportunity to earn points to put towards the latest devices and accessories, as well as access to discounted movie and sports tickets, exclusive pre-sales to the hottest concerts and performances in town, tier benefits such as entertainment rewards and VIP tech support, and more, simply for being a Telstra Plus member.

Our Telstra Plus Rewards Store meanwhile allows you to spend your accrued points on smartphones, tablets, watches, headphones, smart home products and accessories. There’s even our new Xbox One All Access consoles in the store so you can unwrap more games than your Christmas morning has room for! Plus, Telstra Plus members also get an Xbox One Chat Headset with the purchase of an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Subscription so you can coordinate with your squad online.

Not only do you get great benefits from being a Telstra Plus member, but you’re also automatically in the draw to win one million rewards points across the Christmas period up to Christmas day. If you’re not a Telstra Plus member, don’t worry, joining is easy at Telstra.com.au/plus! You just need to be 18+ with an active Telstra service.

The prize draw will take place ~weekly on the following dates:

• Thurs Dec 5 – 5 winners announced
• Thurs Dec 12 – 7 winners announced
• Thurs Dec 19 – 7 winners announced
• Tues Jan 6 – Final 6 winners announced

Merry Christmas from all of the Telstra Plus team, and good luck!

Telstra Plus Points Wonderland Promotion

_{Full T&Cs at www.telstra.com.au/plus/telstra-plus-christmas-points-promotion. Open from 1 December to 25 December 2019 to Aust. Residents who are Telstra Plus members during the promotion period. Prize: 25 x 1,000,000 Telstra Plus Points. Limit one prize per Telstra Plus member. Draws: Level 19/400 George St, Sydney at 11am on 5/12/19 (5 winners), 12/12/19 19/12/19 (7 winners) and 6/1/20 (6 winners). Winners notified by phone and published telstra.com.au/plus on draw dates listed above. Permit numbers ACT – TP 19/04607 SA – T19/1897 NSW – LTPS /19/39758.}