855,000 Australian homes (9.3%) now have Netflix—that’s over 2.2 million people 14+ with access to the US streaming giant, the August video on-demand household subscription data from Roy Morgan Research shows.
“These latest incoming subscription numbers, with a simple assessment at the change in growth rates since April, suggests Netflix is on track to reach 1 in 10 Australian homes in September, and to surpass the one-million-mark by October. Stan and Presto, meanwhile, are each in less than 1% of homes.” Tim Martin, General Manager – Media, Roy Morgan Research commented.

Growth in number of Households with Netflix

Mr. Martin went on to explain that the growth is slowing: Netflix increased by 118,000 subscribing homes in August—the lowest net gain since its first full month of local operations in April. It’s the first time Netflix gained less than in the month before: it previously grew by 133,000 homes in May, 152,000 in June and 166,000 in July.
“Netflix made such a giant splash in the Australian subscription video on demand market, it was inevitable that the initial flurry of subscriptions among the core market would settle down—if by that we mean gaining ‘only’ 118,000 subscribing homes in a month!” Mr. Martin commented “Some of this lower net monthly growth would also be due to homes discontinuing after the trial offers expire, or when they’ve watched about as much of the available content as interests them. The ‘no contract’ model means Netflix and other SVOD players including Stan and Presto need not only to attract but retain subscribers, who can effectively come in and out depending on when new shows or movies are loaded.