Aussie SVOD Market Reached 10.2M Paying Subscribers In April

Southampton, England - July 31, 2017: Using a television remote control with dedicated Netflix button, TV in the background.

More than half of Australia’s adult population were paying for subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services in April 2019, with Netflix alone reaching 5.3 million subscribers, according to AMPD Research, a subsidiary of independent research & consulting firm Media Partners Asia.

AMPD Research’s latest study examined SVOD viewers as well as account holders who pay for streaming services, with most services allowing multiple users per paying account.

The study interviewed a nationally representative sample of 2,100 respondents aged 15+, revealing that one in four Australian households subscribe to Netflix, the market leader, and around one in five subscribe to a dedicated sports service.

The average subscribing household pays A$35.30 per month for 1.9 SVOD services, with the average viewer watching almost 10 hours per week of TV series and movies alone.

Sports consumption is more difficult to pin-point in a survey, due to seasonality and its event-driven audiences, but AMPD Research estimates that the average viewer’s total viewing of subscription-based content exceeds 12 hours per week.

In terms of subscribers, Netflix leads with 5.3 million paying accounts, followed by Stan with close to 1.4 million. YouTube Premium comes in third place with just over a million paying subs.

AMPD Research MD Anthony Dobson said: “Our latest survey confirms that Australian consumers have embraced subscription streaming services at a pace that is unmatched in any other major developed economy we have examined.

“We are seeing impressive adoption rates across demographics, with 52 per cent of the under 45s paying for video streaming services, while take-up among those over 45 is around 48 per cent.

That underscores how paying for streaming video is becoming mainstream behaviour in Australia.”

The study also examined customer satisfaction for subscription streaming services, as well as exploring content gaps.

Dobson said: “On the whole, viewers in Australia are positive about subscription-based video.

“We employed the Net Promoter Score (NPS) method which reflects subscriber willingness to recommend services to other people.

“The SVOD sector as a whole has a positive NPS of 15, lifted substantially by Netflix. Dedicated sports services fared less well with a lower but still positive Net Promoter Score of 2. Netflix remains the service to beat with an impressive NPS score of 41.

“Netflix also recorded the highest average viewing time for a non-sports service as well as the largest paying base and share of revenue among all SVOD services in Australia.”

After Netflix, Stan accounted for the second-biggest share of SVOD revenue in Australia, followed by Foxtel Now.

Overall, Foxtel Now registered the highest average spend among its paying base, largely thanks to its A$29 per month add-on sports pack.

Among the surveyed services, Foxtel-backed Kayo Sports had the highest average viewing time, likely boosted by its coverage of IPL cricket during the survey period, as well as the highest proportion of viewers on a free trial.

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