Netflix has expanded pretty decently in Australia with around 1.42 million users now watching it in 559,000 homes since its launch on March 24th, claims market research company Roy Morgan. Around 400,000 Australian watchers subscribed to Netflix service in June alone, says a report from Mashable.
Netflix much bigger than domestic players
Just last month, Roy Morgan revealed that the U.S. streaming company reached around one million Australian users in May, which was three times more than the total subscribers of local streaming video rivals. Based on the data, 97,000 Australians subscribed to Presto, 91,000 signed up for Stan, 43,000 were viewers of Quickflix and 40,000 subscribed to Foxtel Play.
There is more good news for Netflix in Australia as the subscribers there are willing to take double subscriptions. Back in June, Tim Martin, general manager for media at Roy Morgan Research noted that almost half of the subscribers to Stan, Quickflix and Presto are also subscribed to Netflix. There is a good chances that these subscribers are probably watching the contents on a one-month free trial to decide which service to keep.
Is the data accurate?
The data should be taken with a grain of salt as the research firm came to the 1.42 million figures after surveying 2,208 Australians, above 14 years and over. Questions could be raised over the sample size. Quickflix co-founder Stephen Langsford raised similar objections after the May survey results, which also had a similar sample size.
“You mean the Roy Morgan thing? A survey of 2000 people- I don’t think so,” Langsford said.
Netflix is neither going to acknowledge the figure or deny it. A Netflix spokesperson told Mashable Australia that the company follows a policy of not disclosing the subscriber figures for specific countries, but is excited to see how things are going for company in Australia and New Zealand. “Globally we have 62 million members, with just over 20 million members located outside the U.S.,” he said.
Netflix is just a few months old in Australia, and therefore, it is still to be seen how subscribers will react to service in the coming months. The American firm is undoubtedly seeing good numbers and recently added Space Jam to its titles, which has the potential to add a few more subscribers.
