Amazon sets sights on Oz OTT arena
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Joseph O'Halloran
| 02 October 2019

It is a market that is calculated to have the sixth highest subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) household penetration globally, and characterised by transition and opportunity, Australia is now firmly in the sights of growth for Amazon says Ampere Analysis.

In its study of the Australian online arena, Ampere Analysis predicts that SVOD household penetration in Australia will reach 65% by the end of 2019, making it an extremely attractive market to streamers. Even though Netflix in Australia has by far the largest catalogue of the four main SVOD players, it recorded the lowest growth in content hours between June 2018 and June 2019. In contrast, Amazon was increasing content hours by 84% in the same period – compared to Netflix’s 18%.

Looking at where the points are that Amazon will attack Netflix, Ampere said that the latter was ‘seriously under-weight’ for original productions compared with other large markets. In Australia, 17 local original Netflix productions have been produced or are in production or development, compared with 36 in Mexico and 30 in France.

Yet the analyst cautioned that with Disney selecting Australia as one of the first four international markets for its direct-to-consumer streaming launches, there’s would definitely be competition from both local and global players for Amazon, and Netflix, to deal with.

“[Australian] viewers’ genre preferences are wide and varied, from indie and arthouse to romance and action, and there are plenty of opportunities for adding more acquired and original content,” explained Ampere Analysis director Guy Bisson. “The new service from Disney will meet the demand for children and family and action and adventure content in particular, and by developing a family of streaming services, it will be a ‘super aggregator’.

"We believe this trend will continue, anticipating that the gap we’ve identified in the market for a premium streaming aggregator will be filled by partnerships, original productions and acquisitions. This is a great time to be a viewer in Australia.”