Over 2.8 million New Zealanders watch Subscription TV – largest growth for Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video

New data from Roy Morgan shows over 2.8 million New Zealanders aged 14+ now watch Subscription TV in an average four weeks – encompassing over two-thirds (68%) of all New Zealanders.
Total viewership of Subscription TV in New Zealand has increased 4.9% from a year earlier to 2,823,000, an increase of 131,000.

The biggest increases over the last year have been experienced by the new Disney+ streaming service which launched in late 2019 and Amazon Prime Video.

Netflix is by far the most popular service and now watched by 2,141,000 people in an average four weeks, an increase of 92,000 (+4.5%) from a year ago.

In clear second place is Sky with 1,248,000 viewers. During the last year Sky purchased the Lightbox streaming service from Spark New Zealand and merged Lightbox into its own Neon streaming service in June 2020. Sky also includes the Sky Sport Now sports streaming service (formerly known as FAN PASS) which now has over 140,000 viewers.

In its first year of operation Disney+ has attracted an audience of 700,000 viewers equal to one-in-six New Zealanders and is already the third most popular Subscription TV service.Also growing quickly over the past year is Amazon Prime Video which now has 323,000 viewers, an increase of 141,000 (+77.5%) on the December quarter 2019.
There are 481,000 New Zealanders now viewing one of multiple other services including Apple TV+, Spark Sport, Vodafone TV, YouTube Premium, Google Play and Tubi. Viewership of these services increased strongly over the last year up by 275,000 (+133.9%) on a year ago.

This new pay television data has been obtained from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey, derived from in-depth interviews with over six thousand New Zealanders each year.Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says the new competition in the New Zealand subscription TV market over the last year with the entry of Disney+ means consumers have been the big winners with a wider variety of content available to view:

“Over 2.8 million New Zealanders (68% of the population) now watch Subscription TV in an average four weeks. Although growth has slowed in the overall market with an increase of only 4.9% viewers from a year ago there has been faster growth for the newer services in the market.
“Disney+ has been the stand-out performer during 2020 with the service which was launched in the final months of 2019 already attracting 700,000 viewers within a year of launching and becoming the third most watched Subscription TV service already.
“Amazon Prime Video has been in the market since late 2016 but really experienced strong growth during 2020 and increased its viewership by 141,000 to 323,000, an increase of 77.5% on a year ago.
“However, despite the fast growth for both Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video, the clear market leader is again Netflix which is viewed by over 2.1 million New Zealanders in an average four weeks – more than half of the population.
“Also in a strong position in the market is Sky which includes under its banner Sky TV, the Sky Sport Now sports streaming service (formerly FAN PASS) and the Neon streaming service. During mid-2020 Sky purchased the Lightbox streaming service and merged this into Neon in June 2020. Across these different services Sky now attracts an audience of 1,248,000 viewers – around one-in-three New Zealanders.”

Number of New Zealanders watching subscription television (SVOD/ Pay TV)

source: Roy Morgan Single Source New Zealand, October 2019 – December 2019, n= 1,668. October 2020 – December 2020, n= 1,694. Base: New Zealanders aged 14+. *Lightbox was merged into the Neon streaming service in June 2020 and in this chart Lightbox numbers are only included in the December quarter 2019.

View our range of New Zealand Pay TV/Subscription TV Customer Profiles.

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