More than 3.7 million Australians are now subscribed to streaming services, according to a recent Telsyte survey – that’s an increase of 30 per cent on last year.
And that’s not all – Streaming Video On Demand subscriptions are on track to overtake traditional Pay TV subscribers by June 2018.
The Australian SVOD Market Study 2017 found almost half (49 per cent) of Australian households currently subscribe to either Pay TV or Subscription Video On Demand services, with 11 per cent subscribing to both, an increase from 38 per cent in 2015.
By 2021 subscriptions are expected to exceed 6 million. Telsyte puts this down to the popularity of exclusive and original content, as well as live streaming.
When it comes to specific providers, it’s not just all about Netflix. Stan, Amazon, YouTube Red, Foxtel and Optus Sport all have firm footing in the market, and don’t appear to be going anywhere.
Netflix exceeded 2 million subscriptions at the end of June 2017, with Stan in second with 867 thousand, and “others” making up 769 thousand.
Around a third of Pay TV subscribers also have at least one SVOD subscription, and 46 per cent of SVOD subscribers claiming to “rarely” watch free-to-air TV.
The average SVOD subscriber watches nearly 26 hours of video content a week across FTA TV, Pay TV, SVOD, Online TV on demand (Catch up TV and live streaming TV), and other video content sources (including non-streaming videos), compared to around 21 hours for the average Australian.
“SVOD adoption in Australia has started to reach a scale which has strategic significance to media and telecoms companies alike,” Telsyte managing director Foad Fadaghi says.
SVOD subscribers typically use 61 per cent more mobile data (3G/4G) than those who do not stream SVOD on smartphones. At the end of 2016, the rate of uptake of SVOD by NBN users was 25 per cent higher than non-NBN users.