Data released by Roy Morgan Research shows that Netflix has amassed an early, and potentially unassailable lead in the race to become the premier streaming platform in Australia.
The Roy Morgan survey asked a representative sample of 2088 Australians (those that were 14 or older) in May on their subscription preference, and found that 1.039 million Australians were already Netflix subscribers. In comparison, the next most popular local alternative, the Foxtel and Seven West Media owned Presto, only had 97,000 subscribers. The Nine and Fairfax backed Stan was narrowly behind with 91,000 subscribers, while Quickflix was being left behind with only 43,000. 40,000 were using Foxtel Play, the streaming version of the Pay TV service.
Showing that the fledgling streaming market here in Australia is not a zero sum game, Roy Morgan's data showed that up to half of all Stan, Presto and Quickflix subscribers were also Netflix users.
"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," says Tim Martin, General Manager of Roy Morgan Research Media.
As for cord-cutting, Australians are still not ready yet to move en mass in that direction, according to Martin.
“[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," says Martin. "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?"
