Netflix is dominating the Australian market for subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services, with an average 2.5 million Australians using the US-based service in the six months to June, an Australian Communications and Media Authority survey has shown.
ACMA’s survey of 1505 Australian adults in May and June found that an estimated 3.2 million Australians (or 17 per cent) watched content vi a SVOD in the six months to June, and 2.2 million (12pc) in the last seven days at June.
And according to NBN chairman Ziggy Switkowski, pictured, the success of SVOD services such as Netflix means Australia’s decades-old cross-media ownership laws have been rendered obsolete and should be abandoned.
“The cross-media ownership rules … seem in a broadband world to be increasingly obsolescent. So does regulation by traditional content-delivery channels make any sense now, or might it make any sense at all in 2020?” he asked in a speech at a CommsDay forum in Sydney.
“My personal view is I don’t see the continuing relevance of a two-out-of-three rule or the 75 percent reach rule in 2015.”
ACMA’s figures show that among SVOD users, 78 percent used Netflix in the six months to June, and 88 per cent in the last seven days of June.
SVOD users were likely to be younger (18-34), work full-time, have a degree, live in a household with children (of any age), have an income of $100,000-plus a year and own an Apple TV.
Being able to watch video content when they want was listed by 49 percent of SVOD users as one of the main benefits of SVOD. Other benefits were named as greater choice of content (44 percent) and lower cost (21 percent).
Television was the most popular screen used for viewing SVOD content, with 59 percent of recent users accessing it via TV, followed by desktop or laptop computers (41pc), tablet (21pc) and mobile phone (12pc).
