Aussies streaming to subscription television
AUSTRALIANS are rapidly embracing streaming television for everything from live sport to kids’ shows, with figures released today showing new entrant Kayo Sports more than tripled its subscribers in less than a year.
And experts say the streaming trend will continue to take over Australian viewing habits, with subscriptions predicted to soar from 12 million this year to more than 21 million in 2023.
The forecast from Telsyte also comes just months before two new big-name services arrive in Australia – Disney+ and Apple TV+ – asking viewers to make more difficult entertainment choices.
Kayo Sports, which launched last November, revealed it attracted 382,000 subscribers by June – more than three times as many as its 115,000 users at the end of last year. Chief executive Julian Ogrin said many of those subscribers tuned into watch the recent Cricket World Cup, including 220,000 viewers who streamed the New Zealand v England final alone.
Australia’s matches at the tournament attracted an average of 175,000 viewers, although even more viewers tuned in to India’s games, with an average audience of 187,000.
Other streaming sport highlights included Ash Barty’s French Open Grand Slam victory, which attracted 64,000 subscribers, the NBA Finals, German Formula 1 Grand Prix, and the recent West Coast versus Richmond AFL game.
Mr Ogrin said AFL and NRL fans were both streaming 3.5 hours of their brand of football every week, and most subscribers were streaming more than just one code.
“Kayo is really transforming the way people watch sport,” he said.
“They’re watching over eight hours of streaming sport on average per week, and they’re spanning six different sports. This level of engagement is unprecedented.”
Mr Ogrin said viewers typically streamed more sport on the big screen rather than a mobile device, and he expected the audience for streaming services to more than double in Australia in the coming years.
“The growth of streaming services in households is enormous,” he said. “People have a very strong appetite for all the different fields of content.”
Telsyte managing director Foad Fadaghi said research showed Australians had taken out 2.8 million more subscriptions over the past year and two in five households now subscribed to multiple services.
“Consumers are used to paying for streaming now, particularly because the music industry went that way,” he said.
“It’s logical for them to look at video in the same way.”
However Australian viewers may face some tough choices this year.
In addition to existing streaming services including Netflix, Stan, Kayo Sports, and Foxtel Now, Disney has announced plans to launch its streaming service in Australia on November 19, and Apple is expected to launch its TV+ service later this year.