TV streaming services have surged in Australia during the COVID-19 lockdowns, with 878,000 Australians gaining access to a TV subscription service from March to May 2020.

Now, more than 15.7 million Australians have access to a TV subscription service.

“Subscription TV services have made large gains during lockdown with big increases in viewers for Netflix (+1,078,000 viewers), Foxtel (+658,000), Stan (+729,000), Disney+ (+689,000) and Amazon Prime Video (+678,000) in the three months to May 2020 compared with the three months pre-lockdown,” said Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine.

Netflix remains Australia’s most-watched TV subscription service with 13.28 million viewers, marking an increase of 8.8% (over 1 million) since the start of the COVID-19 crisis.

Foxtel has also experienced its best growth for many years, reaching 5.5 million viewers, up 13.6% compared to the pre-COVID period. “Foxtel launched Binge, its competitively priced alternative to Netflix and Stan, at the end of May and this new offering will be a key part of Foxtel’s strategy to attract new viewers in the months and years ahead,” said Levine.

“The strong growth for Stan, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video shows that Australians are increasingly willing to try out multiple services to find new and interesting content. Incredibly, over 95% of Stan viewers also have access to Netflix and well over 90% of Disney viewers also have access to Netflix.”