Netflix Smashes Presto + Stan As Dodgy "Netflix" Set Top Boxes Emerge

As Australians take to streaming entertainment content, the two biggest players are the $8 a month Netflix and the free ABC iView service.   

The Hitwise data reveals that the Netflix services attracts more than doubled the daily site visits of the next most popular Australian streaming service, ABC’s iView.

The data comes as several none authorised media player and set top box manufacturers attempt to deliver a Netflix streaming capability. 


Click to enlarge
Foxtel Presto bounces along the bottom as Telstra try to prop up the streaming service


In some cases the media players are being marketed at retail stores as Netflix compliant despite the fact that the Linux based open source boxes only allow a user to access the service via a browser that opens up the Netflix web site. 

Users then have to log into the browser each and every time. On several TV’s excluding top end Panasonic 4K TV’s the Netflix app is built in. 

The fastest and best set top box that SmartHouse has tested for accessing Netflix is the Fetch TV box. The demand for a Netflixplayer box comes as tens of thousands of Australians struggle to find a way to access the US streaming service from an older TV. 

The US streaming Company who does not pay taxes in Australia or collect GST leapt to market dominance on the day of its launch, March 24, with more than 475,000 site visits. 

On the same day, ABC’s iView recorded about 330,000 site visits and the next best was Nine’s jump-in.com.au service with slightly more than 200,000 visits, ahead of Seven’s Yahoo TV site.

The Hitwise data shows site visits spiked over the period during the Easter weekend, with Netflix peaking with 820,000 site views on Easter Sunday and iView peaking above 400,000 views on the same day.

As Netflix surges Foxtel’s Presto and Fairfax Media and Nine’s Stan, are both averaging less than 50,000 site visits per day.

This week Stan crossed the 200,000 “gross subscribers” mark, what is not known is how many of these subscribers are free one month trials. 

Stan chief executive Mike Sneesby told the Australian newspaper “conversion from trial has been above our forecast. We continue to see growing consumption every single week.”

What is alarming for Foxtel is Netflix’s steady growth across its first three weeks in Australia with thousands still signing up for the service which is significantly content deficient when bit is compared to the Companies US service. 

The Australian said that at Netflix’s launch six weeks ago, a Venture Consulting research report of “online Australians” reported 32 per cent awareness of Netflix compared with Stan’s 25 per cent awareness, which itself was also quite high for a new brand.