The primary beneficiaries of that increase have been local players Stan and Presto.

A significant issue for Netflix in the Australian marketplace, strangely enough, has been lack of content.

While Stan and Presto, as they’re by substantial local media groups possessed, have been developing portfolios of local content, Netflix has hamstrung its Australian subscribers by working to geoblock their accessibility to the vast repositories of content.
The popular SVOD service had an estimated 200,000 Australian subscribers to its US service using VPN suppliers. before Netflix started in Australia in March 2015 This empowered them to obtain a wealth of on demand content that had previously unavailable locally.

It was embraced by many local consumers who’d never previously been exposed to a low-cost SVOD service when Netflix Australia established, with a drastically decreased content range.

Subsequently, clearly under pressure from international content suppliers, Netflix began from getting its US catalog of content blocking VPNs in international markets like Australia and the UK.

Despite claims to the conrtrary from VPN suppliers, the Netflix geoblocking activity seems to have worked to at least some level. At minimum it made life hard for Netflix users outside the US and has interrupted what was formerly a relatively seamless service.

While Netflix does create its own content in the US, unlike Stan and Presto it will not make content that is Australian.

The wash up, as has been illustrated over the previous 12 months, is content-starved Australian consumers are forced to supplement their local Netflix service with subscriptions to its two primary rivals.

A risk for Netflix is that at least some Australian users of Stan and Presto, having been induced to attempt the options, may well decide to shed the local Netflix merchandise that is seriously hamstrung.