Netflix only launched in Australia in March but has already surpassed its rivals to become the most commonly subscribed-to video streaming player in that country. The previous most popular service Down Under had been Foxtel, which now has a much-diminished share of 38% of the market to Netflix’s 39%. Still, some intriguing statistics reveal that this news isn’t quite as good for Netflix or as bad for Foxtel as might initially be widely assumed.
For a start, a recent study of 85,000 Australians has revealed that 97% of them who were subscribers to the US service of Netflix through virtual private networks – or VPNs – and other tools were yet to even trial the Australian service that the US streaming company had introduced. Only last month, Reed Hasting, Netflix’s chief executive, had predicted usage of VPNs to access his company’s US catalog to soon “disappear” due to the specialized introduction of Netflix into other markets.
Furthermore, though Foxtel has lost 10% of its market share since Netflix introduced its Australian service, as that country’s overall market for video subscription services grew, Foxtel didn’t see a drastic decline in its number of customers. Also, the data does not take into account the company’s business customers who stream in corporate kitchens, bars, and meeting rooms.
