Stan sees subs spike

Stan original Wolf Creek

Australian SVoD platform Stan expects to hit a million subscribers in the 2018 financial year as growth slows at its major rival, Netflix’s Australian service.

In a briefing to analysts this week, Stan CEO Mike Sneesby said the service has 600,000 active subscribers and 1.5 million active users.

The conversion rate from those on free trials to paying customers is running at between 73% and 75% and churn has been reduced from 4% to less than 1.5%, Sneesby added. Stan’s sign-up rate in September was up 200% on the previous September.

Stan’s investors, Nine Entertainment and publisher Fairfax Media, initially committed to each invest A$50m (US$37.8m) in the platform, but that was raised to A$80m after Stan signed an exclusive deal with CBS-owned US cable network Showtime in January.

Sneesby highlighted Stan’s competitive advantage in having the Showtime content plus other supply deals with Sony Pictures, Starz, Warner Bros, NBC, FremantleMedia and numerous indies.

He revealed spikes in sign-ups driven by programmes such as original commissions Wolf Creek and No Activity plus acquisitions Sherlock, Billions, Better Call Saul, The Girlfriend Experience, Power and Younger. A second season of Wolf Creek is in discussion with creator Greg McLean.

Regarding the VoD landscape in Australia, Sneesby said he expects Amazon Prime to have a soft launch before Christmas and a full-blown service sometime in 2017.

He added that Foxtel’s premium content platform is now a mature business with 2.8 million subscribers. By contrast, he estimated there are 2.1 million SVoD subscribers in Australia, a figure he predicted will climb to 4.5 million in fiscal 2018.

He doubted the shuttering next January of rival streamer Presto would have much effect, as Foxtel aims to persuade Presto customers to move to its revamped streaming service Foxtel Play, which will offer new packages and lower prices from December.

Stan, which charges A$10 a month, expects to reach cashflow break-even in the second half of fiscal 2018.