The entry of online streaming services like Netflix, Presto and Stan in March this year has been hugely successful, with recent research by Roy Morgan suggesting that by August, market leader Netflix alone occupied over 850,000 Australian households, and reached some 2.2 million viewers (see next chart).
Unsurprisingly, the huge growth in online subscription services has also led to a large spike in internet downloads, with data released yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealing that total downloads hit a record 1.39 million terabytes in the six months to June 2015, representing record growth of 242,000 terabytes:
When Netflix was first launched in Australia, there were reports of ISPs struggling to meet user demand, and slower congested internet speeds, especially during the evening when television watching is at its greatest.
Given the above charts, I am not surprised.
