Streaming subscriptions soar in Australia during pandemic adding 5.6 million new subscriptions to the end of June 2020, an increase of 18% from a year ago. This growth was across streaming video on demand (SVOD), streaming music and games related subscription services. The COVID-19 pandemic has boosted home entertainment subscription services in Australia according to new research from emerging technology analyst firm Telsyte.
The Telsyte Australian Entertainment Subscriptions Study 2020 found SVOD and streaming music remained the top two largest categories with 16 million and 12 million subscriptions respectively. The total number of subscriptions reached almost 37 million and is forecast to grow to 58 million by 2024.
The maturing streaming music market in Australia sees more users starting to pay. The total number of streaming music subscriptions only increased 2% year on year to 12.2 million at the end of June 2020; however, over half are now paid subscriptions, compared to 42% at the end of June 2019.
The top three streaming music service providers in Australia remained Spotify, Google (including YouTube Music, YouTube Premium and Google Play Music) and Apple.
Streaming music providers are increasingly focused on the podcast segment as growth has slowed. According to Telsyte’s research, more than 1 in 4 Australians aged 16 and over listened to podcasts between January and June 2020, with comedy, health and news and politics related podcasts most popular.
Video streaming subscriptions increased by 32% during the past year with over half (52%) of user believing their services have become ‘essential’ since the pandemic. Video game service subscriptions more than doubled to 2 million at the end of June 2020 (up from 0.9 million in June 2019). Telsyte forecasts this market is set to explode as several companies vie to be the ‘Netflix’ of games.
