Considering the only thing my friends seem to discuss these days is there position on Steven Avery’s guilt, news that Netflix has finally cracked 1 million subscribers in Australia does not surprise me one single bit.
In fact, I’m surprised it took this long.
According to Roy Morgan numbers released today, Netflix ticked over the 1 million mark towards the end of this year and now reaches an impressive 2.7 million Australians. That’s a pretty massive rate of growth.
The growth, say Roy Morgan, is slowing but continues to trend upwards.
Interestingly, Roy Morgan believes that the slow-down of growth signifies that Netflix might take longer that we previously thought to become mainstream.
Technology Adoption Segments show that early adopters, tech-savvy professionals and engaged young social networkers have been the quickest to subscribe to Netflix—and it could take a while longer for the idea of subscription video to gain a foothold among older tech explorers, technology traditionalists and technophobes.
Interesting stuff. For me personally, it took the introduction of Netflix on consoles to really convince me to sign up. Now there’s no going back.
Comments
45 responses to “Netflix Just Hit 1 Million Subscribers In Australia”
It just shows how desperate Aussies were for easy to access and affordable content….even if the quality of content is slowly improving.
It has been discussed that easy access and affordable content is the major factor of australia piracy. This just proves that hypothesis with real facts now. Hopefully this will help bringing the prices of other things down. I’m dying for lower game prices lol.
With the Aussie dollar… I wouldn’t hold yer breath.
Retail aussie game prices are usually quite low, well below RRP. It’s digital we get totally ripped off on.
I’ve had a subscription for a while but haven’t watched anything on it since Daredevil. I don’t think I’m doing Netflix properly.
Do what I do. Every time you sit down to watch something on commercial TV, slap yourself in the face and say “What the hell am I doing?!?” and go watch something ad-free and at a time and place of your choosing on Netflix instead. Works a treat.
I just finished watching Fargo season 2 which I recorded off SBS on my PVR last year when it aired but only just got around to. Even with the ability to fast forward through the ad breaks, I just found it interrupted the viewing experience enough that I just can’t go back.
FTA TV is pretty much just for news and sport now.
I don’t even use FTA for news and sport – reading news/sport via Google News is far easier and more informative.
Yeah, I found after a while that I was just watching Netflix because I’d paid for it, not because I really wanted to be. It was a bit of a waste of time.
So I dropped my subscription, and I’m planning on picking it up for one or two months a year when I know there’s something I want to watch (in March for Daredevil s2, for example).
Try what I’ve done, re-arrange your TV area and “forget” to plug the TV antenna back it… then just roll with your only choices being Netflix, Stan, Presto or Plex streaming etc.
The question is… are you watching TV at all…. If not. Then that’s fine. You’ve got better things to do.
If you’re still watching commercial/Free-to-Air TV instead of Netflix…. Then you have a problem. You must either really love cooking shows, reality TV or watch only Sport.
How many are active subscribers? I’ve made like 5 different accounts for the free month trial in the last 3 years.
On the flip side to that, how many people are watching it? While you may have had 5 different accounts in the last 3 years, there would be households with one account but multiple viewers.
2.7 million. It’s in the graph.
Probably won’t become mainstream until we have better internet. Had people at work complaining about lag when multiple users are using the net at once
I signed up day 1 and still have it. But. I wish they added more content more often. I feel like that is one thing that stops a lot of people from signing up.
Do a quick and free DNS switch on your device and sneak into the US catalogue.
They’re cracking down on that. I’ve been switching between US and UK Netflix for months but now it doesn’t work.
Shame too. My pirating rates have plummeted, but sadly they might start increasing again.
Ah well. Give it a few weeks, the DNS swappers will catch up and come up with some new exit points.
Still seems to work fine for me (I’m using Getflix, I’m not sure if maybe you’re using a different service?).
I did notice that Getflix recently added a “US Alternate 1” region alongside their existing US region, so I suspect that may be them fighting back against Netflix’s changes, but so far I haven’t needed to change to that new region.
Begun, the Netflix region locking wars have.
Give it a minute after you’ve changed and the refresh seems fine.
FYI Canada has some different content to US. You need to search around if you’re looking for horror titles.
“My pirating rates have plummeted, but sadly they might start increasing again.”
still copyright infringement using a vpn to access content you aren’t licensed to view in your region….
And?
Morality does not equal law. Everyone knows that. Gay marriage is still illegal in many places… does that make it immoral? No. Sometimes the law needs to catch the hell up.
Dodging geo-blocking isn’t even illegal, but it’s certainly morally sound as a response to the utterly immoral (but totally legal) practice of region-blocking.
Putting this into context: the ABS says that Australia’s population is just shy of 24 million.
If 2.7 million people in Australia have access to a Netflix subscription it means more than 10% of the population are using Netflix. In 9 months. They’re also probably not counting people who have US or other foreign accounts instead of AU ones (eg I live in the US and use my US account here, but my parents also use it on their TV back in Australia – they’re likely not reflected by this data).
Yeah, mine is a US account too.
Mine too – I remember estimates before Netflix came out being around the 500,000 user mark
Doesn’t Foxtel have a market share of 20-30%?
Netflix getting close to 10% of the market is not bad in its first year when you consider pay-tv take up in Australia is low compared to other countries (ie US) and also because a lot of people shy away from Streaming services because they think their internet is not up to scratch (both on speed and bandwidth).
Look forward to seeing the next year pan out.
Foxtel costs what… $25 a month for the absolute bare bones package? Add another $10 a month for the HD option, and another $15 a month to watch in an extra room in your house, and you’re up to $50 a month. And that’s before you factor in the up front installation costs (something like $175, compared to say a couple of Chromecasts for $50 each, assuming you already have a suitable smartphone / tablet and that you don’t just have a laptop or something to plug into your TV), the fact that it’s on a 12 month plan (I’m not sure if you can cancel that before the 12 months?) and it doesn’t include a sports or movie pack which will add at least another $20 a month to your subscription in order to get some content you might actually want to watch.
Compare that to $12 a month for Netflix which includes HD and the ability to watch on a second device and is a month-by-month prospect with no contracts… even if you add on the cost of a Getflix type service, it’s still a tiny fraction of the cost. It’s easy to see why it’s scaring the hell out of Foxtel.
Foxtel reported to have 1.89 million subscribers late last year. Netflix is rapidly closing in on them.
At the same time, they’re saying that their growth is slowing and Stan is up to 700k users. I’ll be curious how many Stan have after the rash of 3 month trials that they gave out expire (as mine just did).
Season 2 of Better Call Saul starts next month.
I want to know what amount of Stan users also have Netflix. Surely quite a few?
I have both. They complement each other well, at least until Netflix is able to secure some of the Stan content which will bring it more in line with the US.
Yeah, well, so has my mum!
… Wait… That’s not right…
Your mum doesn’t have “one million subscribers”. She has “one dingaling inside her”… mine. 😛
I think we just need access to the entire library and a lot more people would take the plunge.
UK Netflix has Better Call Saul at the same time as Stan, VPN to the rescue.
Yes they’re cracking down on VPNs but its just a token gesture to appease content license holders, they don’t really care. Hulu already tries to block them so I switched to TORGuard who have Stealth VPNs designed to not get detected, or use the ZenMate Chrome extension which is free its never failed me.
And this is why US account holders should close and sign up for Aus Netflix. Add to the pool of subscribers, gives Netflix more incentive to release more content.
Alternatively, we shouldn’t support AU content distributors with regional exclusive distribution deals, forcing them out of business.
Great to hear. Can they put way more stuff on it as a celebration?
Cancelled my subscription. Everything that is on there that isn’t an exclusive is released so long after the US it isn’t worth having. Gone back to torrents and downloading in HD and not having to worry about prime-time throttling due to contention either.
I’ve had Netflix AU since day one. I am very happy with it and I use it every day. I also have Stan which is good but I tend to go towards Netflix more as I find the experience is better and I can watch 4k content on it, which I have no issue with on our sub standard Australian internet. I know, Netflix has been in the game longer and Stan is only a year old. But it’s not 2007 any more. Netflix is a well oiled machine and Stan needs get their apps fully featured before it’s to late.
More interesting question: which goes broke first, Stan or Presto? The current four-horse race is unsustainable as hell in such a small market.
Presto gives out so many free trials and extensions. It’s so easy to find a free 3/6 month code.
Should probably get around to cancelling our US account and starting a Aus one. Add to the numbers.
Eh, cancelled my subscription the other day. I’ve run out of things worth watching on it.