Facebook Watch: The latest video service to enter the already crowded Australian market

Facebook’s global launch of its Watch video service fragments an already crowded market of video-on-demand available in Australia.

The service was first launched in the US 12 months ago. At last week’s global launch, Facebook’s head of video, Fidji Simo, said the company had made the video service “more social”.

The Facebook platform is built around social interaction, so Watch allows those watching videos to also engage in discussions associated with the content being viewed.

Another video streaming service for Australians

But do we need another video streaming service given what’s already available, and promised? Facebook Watch has been launched into a crowded — but still not yet fully matured — marketplace.

Recent research by Ray Morgan found “over 13 million Australians now use pay TV or subscription TV services”.

Many subscription video on demand (SVoD) services have seen large growth. For Amazon, it was 90% year-on-year, while Netflix, Stan, YouTube Premium and Fetch all saw growth of more than 25% year-on-year.

Some services have solid user bases: Netflix (9.8 million), Foxtel (5.4 million) and Stan (two million). Others are only starting to grow, such as YouTube Premium (one million), Fetch TV (700,000) and Amazon Prime Video (273,000). Read more

Mark C- Scott - SmartCompany - 5 September 2018