Australian comedy trio Aunty Donna have teased the launch of a new streaming service focused entirely on locally-produced comedy.
Based on, and named after, their channel for original content Grouse House, the service would reportedly offer previous YouTube mainstays like the Most Upsetting Guessing Game in the world (MUGG), Gocsy’s Classics, and comedy sci-fi series Descent in a subscription-based platform.
Similar to Dropout TV, which emerged from comedy sketch house CollegeHumor in the US, the subscription service would consist entirely of locally-made shows produced in-house. Shows that are currently free on the Grouse House YouTube channel would remain free, while certain new content would be available to subscribers only.
As reported in The Guardian, the Grouse House subscription service will be trialled in the next few months, with a hard launch expected in 2026. Aunty Donna – Broden Kelly, Zachary Ruane and Mark Bonanno – expressed confidence that their fans would be willing to pay a modest amount (The Guardian speculated ‘$6’) for ‘exclusives and a community’.
Grouse House comes from production studio Haven’t You Done Well, which is currently led by former Axis of Awesome member Lee Naimo (his official title is Head of Creative).
‘While we’re happy that the news of the platform is out there, we aren’t able to share specific details yet,’ Naimo told ScreenHub, confirming that plans are already in place for a ‘proper launch’ and that more news would be shared ‘once it’s ready.’
Aunty Donna share excitement over Grouse House platform
‘The rest of Aunty Donna and I have always envisioned Grouse House to be bigger than just a YouTube channel,’ Zach Ruane told ScreenHub, echoing his sentiments from The Guardian piece. ‘Australia has some of the most talented, unique and boundary pushing comedians in the world, and we want to create as many avenues for them to reach audiences as possible.’
Ruane also expressed excitement at the future of Grouse House and the eventual rollout of the subscription platform.
‘We can’t wait to share more news with you about it all soon,’ he said.
‘In the meantime, come see us live so we can pay for all this shit.’
Aunty Donna are currently on a world tour with Drem, a live absurdist comedy sketch show.
Also on ScreenHub: Aunty Donna: ‘Improv is a bit like tomato sorbet and anchovy toast’
Aunty Donna are at a perplexing zenith in their career. On the back of touring their live comedy shows and making a series for Netflix, they’ve now finally landed a sitcom on ABC. It’s called Aunty Donna’s Coffee Café, and is loosely about the three friends – Zachary Ruane, Broden Kelly, and Mark Bonanno – trying to run a trendy café in the heart of Melbourne.
With six episodes available to stream or catch on-air, they can finally say they’ve made the show they always wanted to.
I sat down with all three of them to discuss this new achievement, how they cope with criticism, what’s next on their plate, and … Smorgy’s Bundoora.
Hey guys! How are you?
Zachary Ruane: Good! It’s been a busy promo day, chatting about all the goofs and gags. We did go overtime with our last interview, so if we get too silly with this one you just let us know.
No problem. This is the first Australian broadcast series you’ve made – how did that experience differ to making Big Ol‘ House of Fun in the US?
Zach: We were also the production company [Haven’t You Done Well Productions] on this one, so that made a big difference.
Broden Kelly: Yeah we were the grown-ups.
Zach: So if we pitched something in a script that was going to cost a lot of money or take a lot of time, that got back to us immediately and we had to drop it.
We also got to work with crew and cast that we’ve worked with a lot over the last ten years, so we knew them all really well. The costume designer on this series was the costume designer on our very first web series that we made for community television ten years ago. She’s moved up alongside us over the last ten years, and it’s such a thrill to see her now making costumes for a show of this scale.
But we also brought things over that we learned in America, like shooting on a set instead of on location. That isn’t done all that often for comedy series in Australia. It’s so much easier because you can just keep rolling on a soundstage…
Read more.
