The number of Australians who access SVOD services has overtaken Foxtel’s linear subscribers for the first time, according to new data from research firm Roy Morgan.
In the six months to August 2016, half of Australians over 14 years old, or 9.8 million people, now had access to one or more paid TV services in their home. This included SVOD platforms, pay TV (linear, broadcast Foxtel channels) or internet protocol television (IPTV) – which includes Fetch and Foxtel through T-Box.
Further, for the first time, more Australians had access to an SVOD platform than linear Pay TV; 5,595,000 people (28 per cent) compared to 5,309,000 (27 per cent).
Roy Morgan attributed the bulk of SVOD’s growth to Netflix, but also said that other services, such as Stan, Presto, Quickflix, YouTube Red, and Foxtel’s own SVOD option Foxtel Play, could now be found in the homes of around 1.4 million Australians. However, it also said that over 60 per cent of these subscribers also had Netflix.
Despite the rise of SVOD, the number of people with Foxtel’s linear pay TV in the home has also risen over the period, by an average of nearly 100,000 per quarter.
Roy Morgan suggests that SVOD’s rise has expanded the overall ‘paid TV’ market, rather than taking share from Foxtel’s linear Pay TV.
The research follows on from Foxtel’s announcement last week that it plans to better compete with the SVOD market by shaking up pricing and packaging of Foxtel Play.
“Foxtel’s long-term strength will… be in offering live sport and linear programming, including premium content sourced through its deal with HBO. However as more Australians choose to access content on demand, Foxtel will need to find creative ways to straddle both markets—which appeal to quite different people, with different budgets, tastes and habits,” said CEO Roy Morgan Research Michele Levine.