Late last year, Foxtel announced that it would offer no contracts and equipment-free packages in a bid to attract price-sensitive customers and hold onto market share in the face of stiff competition from on-demand streaming services like Netflix and Stan.
This followed Foxtel already halving the cost of its basic package, and expanding content to its existing customer base, in late-2014 just prior to the launch of Netflix, Stan and Presto.
Now Roy Morgan Research has released a survey showing that Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) services are booming, with one-in-three households in Australia now having Netflix – the market leader:
Following steady growth throughout 2016, the reach of Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) juggernaut Netflix shot up again in the first quarter of 2017, as the latest new research shows.
An estimated 7,091,000 million Australians aged 14+ (36 percent) had Netflix in the three months to March 2017, up sharply from 5,862,000 (29 percent) in the previous quarter.
This latest surge in Netflix’s potential audience is the result of a 20 percent jump in the number of household subscriptions since the end of 2016. An estimated 2,714,000 Australian homes (29 percent) are now subscribed, Roy Morgan Research shows.
Michele Levine, CEO – Roy Morgan Research, says:
“The number of Australians with a Netflix subscription in the home grew steadily by just under 500,000 per quarter throughout 2016. In just the first three months of 2017, the SVOD powerhouse gained over 1.2 million new viewers via 446,000 additional household subscriptions.
“Clearly Netflix—and SVOD more generally—show no signs of slowing. Roy Morgan has been measuring Netflix in Australia since its beginning in early 2015. What we have seen is a classic case of rapid technological adoption, with early adopters signing up first, professional technology mainstream following close behind, and a continuation of high growth as younger digital natives, older tech explorers, traditionalists and even technophobes begin to discover the services.
“Netflix reportedly plans to spend around AU$8 billion on content in 2017 alone—or more than the entire valuation of Foxtel, according to some industry markets analysts.”
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
