Are You Not Entertained? Almost Half of All Aussies Have 5 or More Streaming Services

Netflix is the most popular service, but in a fragmented market, local challengers are also performing strongly.

A sign is posted in front of Netflix headquarters in Los Gatos, Calif., on April 20, 2022. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Australians love being entertained, with 42 percent of households subscribing to five or more online video services in the first half of 2024, according to an Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) study.

And to do this, Aussies spent $3.5 billion on subscriptions in the 2023/24 financial year.

To mark the launch of Netflix 10 years ago, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) has released a study called “10 Years of Netflix in Australia: Streaming Players and Local Content,” which looks at the uptake of various services since they were launched.

Netflix wasn’t the first, just the first paid service—the TV networks, led by the public broadcaster ABC’s iview, has offered streaming since 2008.

While some people were already using virtual private networks (VPNs) to make it look like they were in another country to access Netflix before it formally launched locally.

But mostly, prior to 2015, Australians wanting more than what the TV channels offered were pirating content online. As soon as legal access was offered, the uptake was rapid—a million people had access to Netflix within three months of its launch.

While Netflix has retained the top spot for the entire time, Australians have also embraced other platforms, including local offerings.

Illustration of video streaming platforms, Paris, April 18, 2024. Prime Video, now, Netflix, Disney, TV+, britbox, Shudder, BBC. Video, movies and films. Riccardo Milani/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

Also launched in 2015 was Stan, and while its subscription rate was considerably lower, it increased steadily year on year, having fostered what the report calls “a unique identity as the national streamer.”

It now has 25 percent of Australian households as subscribers.

On-Demand Streaming Continues to Surge

According to Roy Morgan Research, streaming video-on-demand (SVOD) numbers overtook Australia’s sole cable and satellite pay-TV provider Foxtel within just 18 months (though its streaming service, Foxtel Now, had entered the market in 2013).

In 2020, analytics firm Ampere Analysis identified Australia as the most highly penetrated Netflix market in the world, which had then reached 63 percent of homes, compared to 50 percent in the United States.

A Foxtel television cameramen sits behind his camera before the start of the A-League match between Western Sydney Wanderers and Wellington Phoenix at Bankwest Stadium in Sydney, Australia, on May 26, 2021. AAP Image/David Gray

Faced with the combined output of the SVOD providers—which now include Apple TV, Disney+, and YouTube Premium amongst a total of 15, with two more (AMC+ and Max) coming soon—broadcast TV audiences have shrunk, but not as much as the worst predictions.

ACMA research says the number of Australian adults watching terrestrial broadcast free-to-air TV dropped to less than half (46 percent) for the first time in 2024, but are building strong audiences for their free, broadcast video-on-demand (BVOD) platforms such as 9Now, 10Play, and 7Plus.

And public service TV is still in the market, with SBS On Demand and ABC iview (2.3 million weekly viewers).

A recent RMIT study found about three-quarters (71 percent) of smart TV users in Australia combine free-to-air viewing with streaming apps from the broadcast channels, compared to only 8 percent who have abandoned free-to-air TV altogether.

Australian content-makers have not fared as well, however. In January 2023, the government introduced a five-year plan to revive the arts in Australia, including requirements for Australian screen content on streaming platforms by July 2024.

But by November last year, federal Arts Minister Tony Burke confirmed that this had been shelved indefinitely amid concerns any such rules might be seen as a violation of Australia’s 2004 free trade agreement with the United States.

Netflix Says it Spends $1 Billion on Local Content

Nevertheless, Netflix, which has an office in Sydney and an executive responsible for Australian and New Zealand content, has invested in the local production sector, with titles such as Tidelands (its first local commission), Nanette, Heartbreak High, and Apple Cider Vinegar.

It also donated $1 million to screen workers who were stood down during the pandemic.

Netflix reported that between 2019 and 2023, it invested over $1 billion in Australian and Australian-related productions, including more than $500 million on new children’s and young adult programming and over $450 million on new adult drama.

The company said it had contributed to over 80 new films and TV shows filmed across Australia.

Meanwhile, Stan launched its local productions with the very successful Wolf Creek in 2016, and has since produced titles such as True History of the Kelly Gang, The Tourist, and Drag Race Downunder.

While it doesn’t divulge its local production budget, a 2023/24 Screen Australia report confirmed Stan as the largest commissioner of Australian drama titles.

Not all streaming services have blossomed, however.

Fallen by the wayside in the past decade include Australia’s Quickflix, which went from a DVD rental service to streaming in 2014, and had beat Netflix to the market. But it lacked the capital to continue its development, and was eventually wound up in 2021.

Also now footnotes in streaming history are the female filmmaker-centred Femflix, Foxtel’s short-lived Presto, and Oz Flix, which launched with the ambition to offer “Every Aussie Movie. Ever.”