An examination of consumer spend in Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) dating back to 2021 revealed that Netflix held 27% market share for the calendar year ended December 2024. This has held relatively steady over time despite multiple price increases, the enforcement of password sharing policies and the introduction of a paid advertising tier. During this time, Netflix has also maintained market penetration, with between 38% and 40% of the population paying for a subscription during each calendar year dating back to 2021.
AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
While Netflix has held its market penetration steady over time, Amazon’s Prime Video has been the fastest mover, increasing its market penetration by 4.8 percentage points during the 2024 calendar year, for a total of 34.9% of the population.
Prime Video’s growth is compounded by its growth of content, a lower comparative price point, and perhaps most notably by its bundling with the Amazon Prime service, which provides free ecommerce delivery to subscribers. For this reason it is worth noting that the data above does not constitute viewing audience, but paid transactions by consumers for the service.
Total market share for Prime Video during 2024 was 13.1%.
STAN
Nine Entertainment owned Stan, despite a lower profile with less controversy than its larger competitors, has consistently maintained healthy market share and penetration over time. Since 2021, annual market penetration has remained steady at levels between 19 and 20%, with average monthly spend by its subscribers increasing by 3.1% during 2024.
Focusing its strategy on the production of original Australian content and the acquisition of sporting rights for Rugby, Champions League football and Grand Slam Tennis, Stan has continued to carve out a streaming content niche for local content not matched by its larger, global competitors.
DISNEY+
Disney+, which has found growing market share in Australia challenging, this week announced a major initiative to publish ESPN sports content which could see a reversal of fortunes.
Amidst a global reduction in content production, Disney+ has traditionally relied on high impact but low frequency viewing such as the Marvel movies, Disney and Pixar animated movies and Star Wars content which it has used as a key drawcard. Increasing its provision of high frequency ‘must watch’ content has been a priority as reflected in the recent announcement to include ESPN.
2024 market share for Disney+ was 9.1%, with 18.6% of the population paying to access the service at some stage during the year. The average monthly spend by consumers increased by more than $2 throughout the year, representing a 12.7% hit on the consumer wallet.
PRICING
Of the four major streaming services reviewed, Prime Video remained the lowest cost option despite recording the highest proportionate average spend increases throughout the year. During 2024, subscribers paid an average of $11.20 per month for Prime Video, while spending $17.80 for Disney+, $17.60 for Stan, and $18.80 per month for Netflix.
These reflected a range of historic price increases in the category dating back to 2021, which were between 11% and 41% per brand.
FONTO DATA
More than 85,000 Australians share their daily financial transaction data privately and securely with Fonto, allowing us to accurately understand their buyer behaviour over time. We also directly survey them shortly after purchases to better understand the 'why' behind their consumer behaviour.
Foxtel data was excluded from the analysis above to focus on pure play streaming providers. Foxtel continues to represent a significant proportion of subscription TV expenditure amongst consumers.
Apple TV is not measured within the category due to transaction bundling across Apple services.
