Screen time: What you need to know about streaming
Last updated on October 26th, 2022
Australians love to stream. It's a love affair that grew while we were stuck at home during Covid. And one that shows no sign of abating, even if we’re spreading that love around a lot more.
Research firm Telsyte found that more than 75 percent of Australian households subscribe to at least one streaming video on demand (SVOD) service. There were 23.4 million subscriptions to June this year, one for almost every Australian, and rising. Telsyte predicts the figure to be more than 30 million within four years.
While Netflix is still by far the biggest player in an increasingly crowded field, more Australians are proving fickle customers, dipping in and out of services when the mood (or show) takes them.
This is also, in part, due to the cost. Subscriptions are not necessarily expensive on their own, particularly with the most basic plans. But, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the average Australian household pays for two to three TV subscription services. This adds up to about $40 per month, though many pay double that, depending on the number and cost of the subscriptions they choose.
Creating the kind of original content that keeps subscribers interested is a costly exercise for streaming services, too. It’s one of the reasons Netflix has started to introduce advertising to some of its plans.
With so much changing in the SVOD landscape, it’s worth taking a closer look at subscription services to determine what model works best for you and your family.
Reasons to stream
One of the big reasons for streaming’s rapid rise over the past decade is that it puts the viewer in control. With the traditional free-to-air model, you could only watch (or record to watch later) when TV stations decided to schedule your favourite programs. And you had to wait another week before you could watch the next episode or instalment.
With streaming, you can watch what you want when you want – be that the middle of the day, the early hours of the morning or the weekend. If you get interrupted, or the show’s not quite grabbing your full attention, you can choose to revisit whenever you like.
Many services will also release entire seasons in one lot, so you can binge over a weekend. However, that model encourages viewers to dip into a service for a month and then drop out when they’ve seen what they signed up for. So, it’s not surprising that some platforms elect to release episodes of expensive drawcards such as House of the Dragon – screening on Binge and Foxtel Now in Australia - one week at a time.
Who are the major players?
The industry has grown in leaps and bounds since Quickflix launched the first major streaming service in Australia in 2011. By 2015, its major competitors were Presto, Stan and Netflix.
Although Quickflix couldn’t keep up with the competition and Foxtel wound up Presto in 2017, Netflix and Stan continue to do good business in Australia.
| Subscription service share among households | |
| Subscription service | % of AU SVoD Q1 2022 |
| Netflix | 80.0 |
| Amazon Prime Video | 32.1 |
| Disney+ | 30.6 |
| Stan | 23.2 |
| Binge | 11.5 |
| Foxtel Now | 10.3 |
| Paramount+ | 8.7 |
| Apple TV+ | 7.5 |
| BritBox | 2.3 |
| Hayu | 2.0 |
Netflix only manages fourth on the table of new subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, perhaps partly due to the large number of Australians who have already sampled their offering.
Amazon Prime Video attracted the most new subscribers, with Binge (part of the Foxtel Group) and Disney+, which only launched in November 2019, also picking up plenty of customers.
| Subscription service share among households | |
| Subscription service | New subscriptions - % of AU SVoD Q1 2022 |
| Amazon Prime Video | 17.3 |
| Binge | 14.3 |
| Disney+ | 13.4 |
| Netflix | 9.9 |
| Stan | 9.7 |
| Paramount+ | 7.9 |
| Apple TV+ | 3.3 |
| BritBox | 2.2 |
| Hayu | 1.9 |
| Foxtel Now | 0.9 |
Having said that, Netflix is a long way from being knocked off its throne. After back-to-back drops in the number of subscribers worldwide, the company added 2.4 million in the last quarter, taking its total to 223 million. In Australia, more than 6.3 million subscribe to Netflix.
What streaming platform should I choose?
So much choice creates its own dilemma. We often just add new providers as they come on board to our streaming options, or perhaps swap one of three or four subscriptions for another. Especially when they have enticing deals such as 7-day or even monthly free trials, or $9.99 introductory offers.
The fact that we pay monthly, too, means we don’t see the financial impost in the same way. With Netflix’s top subscription now costing $23 a month, if we had to pay $276 in one hit, we might think twice about adding a second or third service. And that’s before you take into account the cost of streaming in terms of internet data usage.
With the cost of living biting on all fronts, we’re all thinking more about our discretionary spending. If you’re planning to whittle your streaming back to just one or two providers, the table below gives you a quick comparison of pricing and content, as well as bandwidth and internet speed requirements.
Comparison of video streaming services in Australia
| Name | Monthly price | Contents | Number of titles available (As of 20 Oct 2020) | Bandwidth use/hour (HD) | Minimum internet download speeds |
| 9NOW | Free | Live streaming of Channel 9, 9Gem, 9Go!, 9Life and 9Rush, as well as live news via nine.com.au | 293 | 1.2 GB | 0.6mbps |
| Acorn TV | $6.99 | British TV shows | 170 | NA | 1.6mbps |
| Amazon Prime Video | $6.99 | U.S. shows and Amazon Prime originals | 9,356 | 2GB | 1mbps |
| Apple TV+ | $7.99 | Wide variety of Apple Originals | 143 (plus the option to rent/buy movies) | 1-3GB | 5mbps |
| Binge | $10.00, $16.00, $18.00 | Australian live entertainment, lifestyle, reality and movie programming plus major global movies and TV shows | 2,701 | 3.25GB-5GB | 5mbps |
| BritBox | $8.99 | British film and television, particularly comedy and mysteries | 380 | 3GB | 3mbps |
| Crunchyroll | $10.99, $13.99 | Anime and manga | NA | 1GB/episode | 0.6mbps |
| Curiosity Stream | $2.99 | Documentaries | 608 | NA | 25mbps |
| Disney+ | $11.99 | Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic creations | 2,552 | 2GB | 5mbps |
| Foxtel Now | $26.00 | American broadcasts, including NBA and NFL | 3,768 | 2GB | 3mbps |
| Funimation | $7.95 | Dubbed East Asian media | 721 | 1GB | 2mbps |
| Hayu | $6.99 | Reality TV | 343 | 500MB-1200MB of data per 40-minute episode | mbps |
| Mubi | $11.99 | Curated streaming service for hand-picked films | 828 | 2.25GB | 10mbps |
| Netflix (Basic, Standard, Premium) | $10.99, $16.99, $22.99 | Latest releases and old classics of TV shows and movies; Netflix Original content | 6,135 | Up to 3GB per hour | 5mbps |
| Paramount+ | $8.99 | Content from CBS Media Ventures and Paramount Media Networks | 933 | 800MB | 3mbps |
| Shudder | $6.99 | horror, thriller and supernatural fiction titles, owned and operated by AMC Networks. | 419 | 1.8GB | 6mbps |
| Stan | $10.00, $16.00, $21.00 | Australian film and television plus some American content | 2,232 | 2.89GB per hour | 2mbps |
| Tubi | Free (ad-supported) | Films and TV series from 250+ providers globally | 15,679 | automatically adjusts its streaming to suit bandwidth | 1mbps |
What else should I compare in streaming services?
The price of subscription services is a driving factor, as is the quality of the internet. Rural and regional communities still rely heavily on free-to-air TV, for example, because of unreliable internet connections and there are many dead zones, even in metropolitan areas of Australia. But there are plenty of other considerations when choosing a streaming subscription.
Content is king
People have short attention spans. If providers don’t offer an ongoing roster of new and engaging content, subscribers will ditch them. But they can just as easily be brought back into the fold with the right shows, too. There’s little doubt that Netflix’s recent jump in subscribers can be attributed to some big-ticket shows. The fourth series of Stranger Things racked up 1.35 billion hours of viewing within the first 28 days of release, while Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story became the platform’s second most-viewed English language series.
Check out what each platform has to offer and whether you’re likely to consume a reasonable portion of what’s on their roster. Most services offer at least a one-week free trial (Stan and Amazon Prime Video both have 30-day free trials), enabling you to try before you buy. Use that time wisely to see what’s on the platform and make sure you cancel the scheduled monthly payment if you decide it’s not for you.
Number of devices
Think about how you and your family use your subscription/s. Generally speaking, the more you pay per month, the more devices you can use simultaneously. Basic subscriptions generally only give you the option to stream on one device at any time, whereas others will allow you up to four, whether it’s a TV, tablet, computer or mobile. Find out before you sign up whether the whole family can watch on separate devices without any issues. It’s not a problem on movie night when everyone’s watching the same thing, but the odds are family members will have their own preferences for content and will want to watch different shows at the same time. If you have more than one subscription, though, it may not matter as much, as you could be watching Stan while the kids are watching Disney+, for example.
Ads or no ads
Once upon a time, streaming providers scoffed at the mere mention of ads. It was one of the reasons viewers came to them in the first place – no more pesky ads to disturb the flow of our favourite shows. But with companies spending enormous amounts of money to create original content at a time when the market for eyeballs has never been more competitive, they are looking at alternative revenue streams. Netflix is introducing a new Basic with Ads plan in Australia in November for $6.99. For that, you’ll have to put up with five minutes of ads per hour of viewing. Disney+ is also introducing a $US7.99 ad-tier in December in the United States, though hasn't flagged when it will be rolled out internationally.
You’ll undoubtedly find ads, even if they’re only shown at the start and end of a program as Netflix proposes, annoying in a previously ad-free world. But with Netflix’s offering almost $4 less than its current cheapest ad-free subscription, this may be something worth considering, especially if you put up with them on a much more intrusive level on free-to-air TV. It’s an attractive model for advertisers, too, because streaming services can collect data such as birthdates and gender that enables them to directly target the audience.
The true cost
When you’re deciding what subscription to keep, don’t just look at what it costs to subscribe per month. If you don’t have unlimited data with your internet provider, then you could end up paying a lot more. With every device you use, that data doubles, triples and so on. If you’re not careful, this relatively inexpensive form of entertainment could end up costing you a lot.
The good news is if you do have a data quota, your internet service producer is obliged to let you know when you’ve reached 50, 85 and 100 percent of your included allowance, so you can at least cut back the closer you get to the limit. And if you do have unlimited data on the home wifi, you still need to be careful when you’re using mobile devices. Watching your favourite series on the commute to and from work, for instance, can chew through your data and send your mobile bill through the roof.
Remember...
There’s no need to be faithful. Streaming services are very easy to join but we often forget to take advantage of the fact they are also generally easy to cancel. If you have fallen out of love with your service, don’t keep paying that monthly fee “just in case” something good comes up next month. Switch to another. If you like the sound of a show coming to a service you used to use, you can always sign up again.
If money is really tight, you don’t have to pay to access good content. There are free services, such as ABC iView, with most of ABC’s content available for at least 30 days after broadcast, or SBS on Demand, which boasts 11,000 hours of shows at any one time. Both are also free of ads. All you need to do is create an account with a valid email address and away you go.
If you’re experiencing any problems with your streaming provider and not getting the service you paid for, let us know and we’ll help you handle it.
