A record 11 Million Aussies are streaming TV content

We love our TVs. In 2017 we love watching “TV” in a big way, but what TV stands for has changed and there’s a huge growth that continues in internet streaming content with over 11 million Australians watching online.

It’s called “OTT” or “Over the Top” content, streamed direct to the screen, be that your phone, tablet, computer or your actual Television screen.

Today, when my kids wake up and ask to watch TV they mean turn on that big screen in the lounge room and watch Stampy on YouTube. It’s all changing.

Netflix tops the charts with almost 4 million viewers in Australia (3,835 million) with the combined Foxtel services hitting 2.5 million.

Telstra’s sporting play with the NRL and AFL rights touches just under 2.5 million Aussies, while in Free-to-air terms the real winner is ABC with iview watched by 2.2 million Australians.

Seven West Media claim the next spot with their combined catch-up, Live, Yahoo and Sports content viewed by 2.2 million.

These are six month rolling numbers from Nielsen, and for Seven would take into account a lot of big sport while 9Now comes in just under 2 million.

TenPlay, SBS, Stan and Freeview round out the top ten with Freeview at 391,000 viewers.

A notable absence is Amazon Prime which by any measure has failed to make a dent on the Aussie market.

Those numbers across all services except Freeview are up on the previous period which shows strong and steady growth in the concept of streaming overall.

There are not – and will probably never be published subscriber numbers for the streaming services, however Industry insiders put the Netflix subscriber numbers at 3.2 million, Stan at 600,000, Foxtel Now at 200,000 and Amazon Prime at 100,000.

We’re not shy of paying, with a lot of the content driving that 11 million number occuring in paid content like the NRL, AFL and Optus Sport as well as Netflix, Stan and Foxtel Now.

How we are doing this is a less studied question. Apps versus small TV connected boxes and PCs would be an interesting breakdown.

There are 1 million Telstra TV’s in Aussie homes, though that number is the number Telstra has posted out, it’s likely the activation and usage is much lower – possibly as low as 55-65%.

Fetch TV however continues to grow, passing 600,000 subscribers recently, and likely selling more than Foxtel on a monthly basis.

How many people are just watching on mobile devices versus the number connecting to their TV in some way would be a very interesting study.

This is the future after all.