Nearly one in three existing Foxtel subscribers are planning to or considering cancelling their Foxtel cable or satellite subscriptions for Netflix, Stan or even Foxtel's own Presto. The result comes from a new survey by consumer insights specialists Pureprofile.
1317 Australians were asked a series of question on their viewing habits, and the results point a dire picture for the nation's main subscription TV provider, Foxtel.
Pureprofile found that six per cent of Foxtel subscribers have already decided to ditch the service for a streaming product like Foxtel, while an astonishing 25.2% said they were also considering doing the same.
Despite being available in Australia for only two months, the survey showed Netflix's strong brand recognition has helped the streaming giant quickly gain market share here (not surprising considering the service is thought to have had 250,000 subscribers in Australia even before it's official launch here, thanks to the use of geo-unblocking services). 9.6 per cent of all of those surveyed say they already have both Foxtel and Netflix, while 73% say they've heard of Netflix. As a comparison, only 48.1 per cent said they were aware of Nine and Fairfax's Stan, a locally owned alternative to Netflix. Even fewer were aware of Foxtel and Seven's Presto (39.6 per cent). Foxtel's brand awareness was at 83.7 per cent.
Pureprofile CEO Paul Chan says the addition of these new services represent a win for consumers.
“With more choice than ever before, and customers able to vote with their loyalty about which services they subscribe to and pay for, the result should be a greater diversity in the services available, the packages they offer, and the methods available to pay for them,” said Chan.
Somewhat against the trend worldwide, young people here in Australia are much more likely to pay for content than older Australians. 52.9 per cent of respondents aged 65 or above believes all content should be free, compared to only 26.5% of 18- to 24-year-olds. Seven per cent said they watched illegally downloaded content on a weekly basis.
