More Aussies are subscribing to Streaming, Music and Gaming but Netflix takes a hit in latest numbers

Subscription services in Australia grew by 3 percent in 2023 with 49.9 million subscriptions among us. We bloody love our streaming TV, Movies, Music and even gaming but that 3% growth is down on the double digit growth seen in the year prior.

All this data fromes from Telsyte’s latest report into Subscritpions, with Video streaming – or SVOD – continuing as the largest and most competitive segment of the subscription market.

We have a total of 24.6 million Video subscriptions, up 5% year on year, with the average per household growing to 3.4 services – with a staggering 39% of households that have any subscriptions having more than three!

Netflix’s crackdown on password sharing had an impact, with it’s first ever decline in subscriber numbers, but they still have 6.1 million accounts – far ahead of Prime Video with 4.5million, then comes Disney with 3.1 million, Stan with 2.6 million, Binge and Paramount+ with 1.5 million while Kayo’s 1.4million and Apple TV+’s million round out the charts.

Things aren’t going to slow down either, Telsyte’s Foad Fadaghi says “Profits, partnerships, and more aggressive behaviour. There’s going to be increasing competition to win people over from other platforms,”

Despite the cost of living “crisis” Streaming services aren’t the top consideration for households looking to cut their spending. SVOD services ranked 6th in areas where consumers would consider cutting costs (Top 3 were Dining Out/Takeaway and Clothing and Holidays)

“Paid SVOD services as a category exhibits strong retention and near recession-proof characteristics, as other significant spending areas become household budgeting priorities,” says Fadaghi.

All those price rises are set to continue too, with Teslyte finding 51% of Streaming users are expecting prices to rise and have accounted for that in their budget already!

Perhaps the biggest untapped market is the free streaming services, with BVOD (Broadcast Video On Demand) services like 9Now, ABC iView, SBS On Demand, 10Play and 7Plus attracting 10 million viewers, with 5 million Aussies claiming to have used these services in the last 12 months.

Music subscriptions are the second biggest market, with 16.6 million subscribers, up 5% with Spotify topping the charts, followed by Google’s YouTube subscriptions then Apple Music.

And not to be left behind, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are pushing their games related subscriptions with a 2% growth year on year.

Xbox Game Pass leads the trio with it’s free game access subscriptions appealing to familied.

That’s a lot of subscriptions folks!