Almost 14 million Australians have Subscription or Pay TV
New research from Roy Morgan shows 13,975,000 Australians aged 14+ now have access to some form of Pay TV/Subscription TV or Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD), up 7.9% on a year ago.
Netflix is the clear market leader with nearly 11.5 million Australians now having a Netflix subscription in their household, up by 17.6% on a year ago.
The leading Australian-owned SVOD is the Nine Entertainment Company owned Stan which is now accessible by nearly 2.9 million Australians, up by 43.2% on a year ago.
Other smaller Pay TV/SVOD services to have grown quickly over the past year include Amazon Prime Video (+130.7%), YouTube Premium (+37%) and Fetch (+20.9%).
The new Foxtel-owned sports streaming service Kayo Sports has also enjoyed swift growth since launching in late 2018 and is now accessible by well over 300,000 after just over six months of operation.
Over 3.6 million people in New South Wales and 2.8 million in Victoria have access to Netflix
Netflix has made a huge impression around Australia since launching just over four years ago and over 3.6 million people in NSW (55%) and over 2.8 million in Victoria (52%) have access to the service.
Penetration of Netflix is actually higher for people in both Queensland and WA. Now over 2.3 million people in Queensland (57%) and nearly 1.3 million in WA (60%) have access to Netflix – the highest rates of usage of any States.
Access to Stan is at around a quarter the level of Netflix and penetration is highest in South Australia where 266,000 have access to Stan equating to 18% of the population.
Australians with household access to leading SVODs Netflix & Stan by State
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source: March - May 2019, n=12,113 Australians aged 14+. Base: Australians aged 14+.
How psychographic factors drive the take-up of Pay TV/Subscription TV services
Helix Personas is a unique and powerful consumer segmentation and data integration tool that combines sophisticated psychographic and behavioural data to classify the Australian population into 54 Personas and six Communities. Helix Personas uses a combination of Roy Morgan Single Source data and third party data sources.
This information is used to understand future buying intentions and media consumption patterns across a range of industries. These are easily integrated with third party datasets.
Netflix appeals to all Helix Communities while Foxtel popular with families
Analysis of Australians with access to Netflix and Foxtel by Helix Communities shows Netflix has a strong appeal to Australians from all walks of life while traditional Pay TV provider Foxtel is more popular with families than with other psychographic segmentations.
Access to Netflix is highest amongst those in the 100 Leading Lifestyles (60%), 200 Metrotechs (58%) and 300 Aspirationals (57%) with these communities over-represented with access for the size of the population they represent, although at least 50% of all six communities now have access to Netflix.
In contrast there is a clear difference between take-up of Foxtel which is clearly highest amongst 100 Leading Lifestyles (27%) and 400 Hearth and Home (27%) – the two Helix Community segmentations most closely related to wealthy and middle-class families.
Fewer than a fifth of the younger 200 Metrotechs (16%) or lower income Australians in the 600 Fair Go (18%) community have access to Foxtel.
Access to Netflix and Foxtel by Helix Persona Community
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), March - May 2019, n= 12,113. Base: Australians aged 14+.
Michele Levine, CEO Roy Morgan, says increasing numbers of Australians are willing to pay for premium TV content as Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) services such as Netflix, Stan and Amazon Prime Video grab an increasing share of the market:
“Over two-thirds of Australians now have access to Pay TV/SVOD services in their households as strong growth for services including Netflix, Stan, YouTube Premium, Fetch, Amazon Prime Video and new live-sport focused Kayo Sports has continued during 2019.
“A closer look at the industry leader Netflix, which is now accessible by almost 11.5 million Australians, shows the service has broad appeal across differing psychographic segmentations. The differences between the newer Netflix service, and the traditional Foxtel Pay TV service, are illustrated succinctly by Roy Morgan’s Helix Persona Communities.
“A majority of all six Helix Persona Communities are able to access Netflix ranging from 60% of Australians in 100 Leading Lifestyles through to 50% of those in 600 Fair Go.
“However an analysis of Australians with Foxtel shows well over half are concentrated in the more family-centred Helix communities. Over a quarter of 100 Leading Lifestyles (27%) and 400 Hearth and Home (27%) have access to Foxtel compared to under a fifth of the affluent young 200 Metrotechs (16%) and the lower income 600 Fair Go (18%).
“The results indicate that the low monthly prices for the new Subscription TV services led by Netflix are driving take-up across traditional demographic boundaries while the higher cost of a full-bundle service from Foxtel is generally favoured more by larger family units.
“The competitive nature of the market is underlined when one considers there are powerful new players’ entering the global streaming video market such as Apple TV+ and Disney Plus looking to leverage off their existing user base of installed devices (Apple TV+) and TV/movie catalogues (Disney Plus) respectively.
“Netflix has undoubtedly been a star performer since launching in Australia just over four years ago in a market with a proliferating array of choices for the consumer it will be more important than ever for existing and new streaming services to correctly identify which genres will appeal to the widest possible audiences.
“Roy Morgan explored the genres preferred by Australians earlier this year which showed News and Reality TV are the most popular genres although there are significant differences depending upon which demographic segments are highlighted.
“Contact Roy Morgan to learn how you can attract new customers in the Australian market.”
Click here to view profiles of users of Pay TV/Subscription TV services including Foxtel, Netflix, Stan, YouTube Premium, Fetch, Amazon Prime Video and others.
Contact Roy Morgan to learn more about Roy Morgan’s Pay TV and Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) research or Technology Adoption Segments.
For comments or more information please contact:
Roy Morgan - Enquiries
Office: +61 (03) 9224 5309
askroymorgan@roymorgan.com
Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
