Roy Morgan data shows that Australians turned to streaming platforms during lockdown

As the world begins to move past the strictest of Covid-19 restrictions, a new report has shows that Australian turned to SVOD platforms during lockdowns.

Roy Morgan Single Source reports from October - December in 2019, 2020, and 2021 show that the onset of the pandemic resulted in an uptick of people watching the major SVOD services. Foxtel, Disney+, and Amazon all saw their viewership grow by over 1 million viewers.

74.5% of Australians – a whopping 15,763,000 people – watched a subscription TV service in an average four weeks in the three months to December 2021. That number has risen 2.5% – or 387,000 people – compared to 12 months earlier.

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said,  “The results of the last two years, and particularly over the last year, show that as competition intensifies in the Subscription TV market the pressure grows to bring new content to market to provide new reasons for people to sign up, or continue subscribing.

“The large growth for newer services, even as the broader market grows much more slowly, shows that Australians are increasingly prepared to subscribe to multiple services. The average number of Subscription TV services Australians use has increased from 1.8 in December 2019 to 2.7 today.”

Solidly in first place, Netflix saw 12,821,000 people tune in in an average four weeks. The flip side of the coin is that their viewership only raised 0.1%, or 10,000 people, compared to last year. 

7,130,000 people tuned in to watch Foxtel, Foxtel Now, Binge an Kayo Sports in an average four weeks. This was up 23.9%, or 1,376,000 people, over 12 months. Binge was the best performing of the Foxtel services.

Stan has clocked in with 4,707,000 viewers, however their situation is a bit different from Netflix and Foxtel. Their two year increase has been 29.7% (or 1,079,000 viewers), boosted by lockdowns. Over the last 12 months however, they haven’t managed to continue the trend, and are down 195,000, or 4%, on a year ago.

increasing 29 1,079,000 (+29.7%) on two years ago pre COVID-19. However, Stan has been unable to hold all the viewers it gained during extended lockdowns throughout the last two years and is down 195,000 (-4.0%) on a year ago.