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Australians “spoilt for choice” with SVOD services.

Subscribers are increasingly settling onto Netflix + one other streaming service.

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Australians are spoilt for choice when it comes to SVOD services according to a report from advisory firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

“The range of services available is set to continue growing over the forecast period. Launches from international heavy hitters Apple and Disney are rumoured. In the small Australian market, this level of competition will likely prompt further consolidation. Presto, a home-grown joint venture between Seven Network and Foxtel, has been an early casualty,” PwC reported.

“The dominance of Netflix cannot be ignored, with the majority of consumers taking a ‘Netflix and (other)’ approach to spending their SVOD dollars. Less clear is who will win the coming battles for the second SVOD service: will Stan, Foxtel Now, Kayo or Amazon Prime give way to Disney or Apple TV+?”

According to PwC a key question to consider if consumers’ purchase decisions are being driven by:

  • the total number of services held (by individual or household), for example having a cap of no more than three services, or;
  • the total dollar value spent per month, for example, spending no more than $40?

It also concluded that Netflix and Stan are on track to outstrip free-to-air television and Foxtel, with streaming services tipped to increase their subscription revenue by 13.7% between 2019 and 2023.

Foxtel is expected to experience a 2.9% drop in subscriber revenue according to PwC.

17 Responses

  1. I’m also a fan of Prime. I find it a great secondary service that has a lot of hidden gems. There’s a lot lesser known older films and even some new releases that aren’t on Netflix. The big problem is it’s crappy interface. It really needs an update.
    I get a lot of value from Prime with the free shipping and even the free 12 month subscription to the Nintendo Switch Online service.

  3. As someone who works full time shift work and limited spare time, I have to ration my TV viewing to a few services. I rarely watch FTA these days (apart from the nightly news). My subscription TV consists of Foxtel and Netflix. We had Stan for about 6 months and I ended up being the only one using it (in a house of 3 people). I originally got it for the James Bond movies and Better Call Saul (which used to be on Foxtel), so it went.

    Haven’t even looked at Amazon Prime yet.

  4. I agree,we are spoiled for choices when it comes to SVOD in this country.I have Netflix,Foxtel Now,Fetch and Amazon Prime with Stan occasionally.It all comes to about $50 a month,which is very reasonable in today’s dollar terms.

  6. One particular company that I use on a semi regular basis just offered me a 3 month free trial of Kayo – can cancel at end of trial period (which is my intention). I have only used it a few times to watch AFL. I have Netflix which I use daily and Foxtel Now which I just got a $10 discount per month for the next 12 months that they offered so I wouldn’t cancel after GOT (Plan on keeping that until Wentworth finishes, then I’ll reconsider). I used a free trial of Stan and Amazon Prime earlier in the year, they were alright but I was too busy with other commitments to warrant paying for something I wouldn’t use often.

  7. Foxtel certainly have a clash of diverse commercial interests, they remain invested in their satellite 4K set top boxes though competing streaming services are also providing HDR10 / UHD SVOD as well, so obviously having a good broadband service is essential for consumers. I’m not sure what the future solution will be for Foxtel, it has Kayo but that service is subject to buffering and a lack of versatile playback controls, Foxtel’s other channels can be given a new streaming app as well but will require a lot more investment in content which with the small market available will be costly without a larger global reach to increase subscriber numbers.

  8. I have Amazon Prime for AU$59 a year and Curiosity Stream for AU$28.94 a year so AU$87.94 or AU$7.32 per month, I then work my way around Stan and Netflix. For instance I’ll do Stan when all of Better Call Saul is up as it’s cheaper that way and with most being at 10 episodes very easy to knock over in a month.

  10. Sure the most economic approach is to subscribe to 1 or 2 of the big ones. Then rotate around the minor ones when they have something you want to watch. If you subscribe to one of them for 2 months to watch one series, that’s still cheaper than the DVD.

    1. Yep and like below cheaper than renting the series as it airs, for instance Better Call Saul on Fetch is $22.99 per season (each for 3 and 4, 1 and 2 are each $19.99), so where I can I do that less and less now. Things like Game Of Thrones I did that way as the final season was $19.99 and that’s better than doing Foxtel just for it, some like Suits, Legends Of Tomorrow, Westworld, Legion, Mr Robot, Gotham, Preacher and Krypton I do the same with as basically you’re looking at what would be a month and halfs sub to Foxtel to watch them all.

  11. I have three services for about $35/month. I can’t justify a fourth, even though there are a couple of things I’d like to watch elsewhere. I only have time to watch so much on SVOD.
    In the past 27 days we have used 110Gb of data. Half of that would be watching SVOD. In addition to the three I subscribe to I am also a regular user of catch up tv.

    1. It’s interesting the amount of data you use ,that’s about 4GB per day ,are you using SD/HD quality ,it’s usually 3GB per hour full HD and as for 4K that’s a data chewer up to 6GB per hour.?.

    1. I was about to say the same thing!

      Stan and Foxtel Now have great libraries and are worth the money. Prime is great if you’re a regular Amazon shopper (discounts, free delivery and loot if you’re a gamer), and Prime is relatively inexpensive as well. 10 don’t have enough (any?) premium content to justify the cost. And it’s not as widely available as the others.

      1. Yeah I’ve made my yearly sub up on Amazon Prime in free delivery, plus there’s Twitch TV as well included and 1,000 eBooks rotated through a month for free, so it all keeps it worth it.

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