The recent launch of Anytime on VOLT, a video-on-demand service from Anytime and Fairfax Digital grabbed the attention of Australian Internet users, debuting at #5th position in the Hitwise Shopping & Classifieds - Video and Games industry with 4.09% share for the week ending 21 April 2007. Blockbuster movies, TV shows, music videos and games will be available on the online channel to consumers in Australia and New Zealand, competing directly with bricks and mortar rental stores.

Anytime on VOLT ranked ahead of existing video-on-demand providers, Big Pond Movies at #7th position, and Reeltime at #81st position for the week ending 21 April 2007. Mail-order service, EzyDVD was the leader in the Shopping & Classifieds - Video and Games category with 10.55% share, and has been the number one website based on monthly visits for the past 24-months.

An important factor in the ongoing success of video-on-demand consumption in Australia will be access to high-speed broadband. Hitwise search data indicates there were 4,584 variations on 'broadband' for the 4 weeks ending 21 April 2007, with 'cheap broadband', 'broadband speed', 'unlimited broadband' and 'free broadband' amongst the top 30 searches.

BitTorrent, which is software that allows high-speed content delivery through peer to peer networks, is also a competitive consideration for video-on-demand providers. BitTorrent.com received the highest volume of searches on the term, 'bittorrent' and ranked at #1095 in Hitwise All Categories compared to #386 for EzyDvd for the week ending 21 April 2007. While BitTorrent.com offers free downloads, it importantly also allows users to rent and purchase content from major publishers, addressing copyright infringement. Google Australia was overwhelmingly the highest referrer of website traffic to BitTorrent.com with 43.48% upstream share for the week ending 21 April 2007, followed by Google, Wikipedia and MySpace.

Joost, which similarly offers interactive software for distributing television and video content online has started to pick up traction amongst Australian Internet users, increasing its ranking in the Computers & Internet - Software category from #1061 for the week ending 3 February 2007 to #532 for the week ending 21 April 2007.

More than a third of visitors to the Shopping & Classifieds - Video & Games category were amongst the 18-24 age bracket, attracting even numbers of female and male Internet users for the week ending 21 April 2007.

Sandra Hanchard

Sandra Hanchard is a Research Analyst for Hitwise Asia Pacific covering online industry trends in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong. This piece was originally posted on Hitwise blog here.