news The number of Australian households with a Netflix subscription rose in October to top one million, according to data from Roy Morgan Research.
The actual figure cited by the research is 1,039,000, which equates to 11.4% of Australian households. The climb has been rapid too: back in April 2015, just 286,000 households subscribed to the service.
Roy Morgan points out that the data is based on newly revised household projections from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which decreased the estimate of Australian households. “These new projections, as well as changes in the composition of homes with Netflix, mean the weighted net increase in the number of homes with Netflix is more than the increase in the number of people with Netflix'” it says.
Significantly, for the majority of Netflix subscribers, this is their first time paying for TV, the data shows. In the year preceding the arrival of Netflix, over 7 in 10 Australians lived in a home without any paid TV service, but in the latest figures this had declined to 58%.
The rise of Netflix and other streaming video on demand (SVOD) services is changing the way we buy or download content. In the six months to September 2015, says Roy Morgan, fewer Australians bought or rented DVDs, or downloaded TV shows or movies.
20.6% of Australians bought a DVD and 15.3% rented one in an average three-month period in the six months to September 2014. This dropped to 19.3% and 12.4% respectively during the six months after Netflix launched.
The rate of downloading TV shows or movies has also declined, the data shows: from 10.8% a year ago to 9.1% now.
“The trends suggest it may not be long before the majority of Australian homes are paying for TV content through one or more pay or subscription TV providers,” said Tim Martin, General Manager – Media, Roy Morgan Research.
“Australians have been notorious for their high levels of illegal downloading. While our figures of course include legal downloads, it is notable that the younger, tech-savvy people most likely to download TV shows and movies have been the quickest to subscribe to Netflix – and the overall rate of downloading has declined.”
According to Martin, a year ago just over one in five 14-24 year-olds downloaded TV shows or movies in an average month. Today, around 22% of this group lives in a home with a subscription to Netflix and the rate of downloading has fallen sharply to 15%.
He concluded: “The impacts of Netflix, as well as Foxtel’s broadening range of options and now Telstra TV, will be felt across multiple areas: from the reach of commercial television and how much time we spend watching free-to-air channels, to our Internet data limits and uptake of the NBN, sales of DVDs and Blu-Rays, and our attitudes to what content we’ll pay for and what we expect to get for free.”
Wish I could be one of those :(
from the department of “We told you Media Cartels so!”.
I wonder how many of those aussie Netflix subscribers use a VPN or DNS service to access USA Netflix? Im guessing at least 2/3rds. I know me and all my friends do. Pretty sure we are in a “global economy” anyway… Ow thats right its only “global” when it suits big business and not the little guy…
lol it must suck to be all them old people paying $130/month for FlopTel TV subscription only gain access to 24/7 insurance/funeral ads and non HD content….
I don’t use a VPN or DNS unblocker because there are currently more than enough shows on the Aus version of netflix that i haven’t seen yet. That said, the moment i run out I’ll be getting a DNS unblocker.
As for foxtel, the people I know who have that service only have it for the live sports broadcast. God only knows what they are going to do next season now that Optus have EPL broadcast rights…
However some of us oldies even manage to switch our VPN between US & UK Netflix for content missing from the AU version.
Up with Netflix and down with Foxtel.
Not so fast. Foxtel is in almost three times as many households as the figure reported here for Netflix.
I am one of the many with quickflix and Netflix. Nothing beats the multitude of formats and lossless audio codecs available through blu ray. Especially with a good home theatre set up.
Agreed, the convenience is great tho.
I use Vudu for rentals as they stream much higher bitrates for both video and audio.
Cost, availability and convenience will trump quality for the majority of consumers most of the time. That’s why demand and consumption of digital media is increasing, while physical media sales are decreasing.
He concluded: “The impacts of Netflix, as well as Foxtel’s broadening range of options…
Say what? How does the 2nd worst performing SVOD rate a mention over STAN?
Gotta pay the piper right?
It will all come to naught unless they do something about the unsustainable CVC costs.
At $17.50 per Mbps you can kiss your HD goodbye during peak times (don’t even think about Ultra HD) and say hello to SD or worse Netflix.
CVC? Tried Googling, no luck there with anything that aligns with what seems to be the context.
You know the craziness in it all, for me anyway. My 14Mbit connection use to always run at 14Mbit (via Telstra) never ever had congestion issues. Now, as soon as 6-10pm comes around my speeds go to the dogs. It usually hovers around 4-5Mbit which granted, is enough to stream a SD movie or tv show BUT no one else in the family can use the connection. Or , if they do buffering starts to occur.
So, I have to pirate to watch shows because my connection goes to the clappers in the evenings. So, I download what I want to watch during the day then fire up PLEX in the evenings. Great solution we have hey!!!!
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