Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, March – May 2016, sample n = 13,318 Australians 14+
According to new data from Roy Morgan Research, almost five million Australians over 14 now have access to Netflix, putting it well ahead of the other SVODs.
The market research firm calculated that as of May, 1,878,000 households across Australia subscribed to Netflix, with a reach of 4.95 million viewers. This included paid subscriptions, free trials and special offers.
Trailing behind was local rival Stan, who was reported to have 332,000 subscriptions, reaching 891,000 people. Presto had 142,000 subscriptions to reach 353,000.
Further, while the figures showed that Stan and Presto were growing, Netflix was far stronger at converting customers to paid subscribers – as opposed to accessing the service via a free trial or special offer.
Roy Morgan estimated 92 per of Netflix subscriptions in the May quarter were paid, worth at least $15.5AUD million per month in revenue for the US company.
Around 78 per cent of Stan subscriptions were paid, resulting in estimated $2.6million revenue.
However, only an estimated 64 per cent of Presto subscribers paid for the Foxtel-owned service. Over a third of customers had signed up to a free trial or accessed the service through a bundle.
Roy Morgan Research chief executive officer Michele Levine said the growth of Netflix since its Australian launch last year made it clear SVODs were a major new component of the local media landscape.
“Stan in particular has been growing fast in 2016, with many Netflix subscribers now adding on a second SVOD service to meet their appetites for content. Around three quarters of homes with Stan also have Netflix,” she said.
“Part of SVOD’s appeal to consumers is that, unlike Pay TV, there is no lock-on contract. Both services will need to ensure, through timely delivery of new and exclusive content, that current customers remain customers”