Data from Roy Morgan Research shows that within two months of its local launch, over a million Australians across 400,000 households had signed up to Netflix, the latest Streaming Video On Demand (SVOD). Tim Martin, General Manager – Media, Roy Morgan Research explained that Netflix launched in Australia on March 24, although some estimates say over 200,000 of us may have previously signed up to the service, using geo-blocks to stream US or UK content. Officially, in April, 766,000 Australians in 296,000 homes were subscribed. By May, this had grown to 1,039,000 in 408,000 households.
“Roy Morgan’s subscription TV data on Netflix and its local competitors reveals it’s so far been a one-sided battle.” Mr. Martin commented “But our early research also shows that the war’s far from over, especially when it comes to Foxtel. Over 5 million Australians live in a household subscribed to Foxtel, whether directly or as bundled with other services through a telecommunications provider such as Telstra or Optus—and this currently includes around 300,000 Netflix subscribers. Are they adding Netflix, and planning to keep Foxtel too? Or were they holding on to Foxtel until Game of Thrones wrapped up season five last week?” Martin added.

Martin pointed out that by May, just 97,000 Australians were subscribed to Presto, from Foxtel and Seven West Media; 91,000 had Stan, which Nine Entertainment and Fairfax Media launched in January; 43,000 had Quicklix, the long-established ASX-listed former DVD-delivery service (just like Netflix once was); and 40,000 had Foxtel Play, the streaming version of its Pay TV.
“In the SVOD space, Netflix’s dominance is clear. Up to half of all subscribers to Stan, Quickflix or Presto are also subscribed to Netflix—perhaps bingeing for a month on free content across the options, preparing to make a decision about which, if any, earns their continuing monthly spend.” Mr. Martin commented “But it also might not be an either-or proposition. As each has different content available, many Australian TV lovers may choose to subscribe to multiple SVOD providers, switching between Orange is the New Black on Netflix, Better Call Saul on Stan, the HBO back catalogue on Presto and a new release movie (or delayed Game of Thrones marathon) on Quickflix.” Martin concluded.