Get in my telly! 7 million Aussies will be streaming by 2022

If you thought Australia was a nation of Netflix addicts, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Use of online video services is set to skyrocket over the next five years, with almost 7 million Australians expected to be subscribing to a service by 2022. That's a 170 percent increase from where we were at as a nation in 2016.

The prediction comes from UK analyst firm Ovum, which has analysed Australia's use of "over-the-top" video services (that's video delivered over an internet connection, not the 1987 arm-wrestling movie, starring Sylvester Stallone).

According to Ovum's predictions, OTT video in Australia is also set to generate AU$1 billion in revenues by 2022, double the 2016 figure of AU$460 million.

But as far as what we'll be watching, don't expect a massive uptake of niche services or so-called "transactional" content (titles to rent or download from services like iTunes and Google Play). Ovum says 70 percent of OTT revenues will be swept up by subscription services like Netflix and Stan.

It's a massive figure, and one that probably seemed out of reach just two years ago before the arrival of Netflix in Australia. Since the world's biggest subscription streaming service launched on local shores, the Australian entertainment industry has seen a massive shakeup -- smaller players have bowed out and local rivals like Stan have grown to meet the demands of Australians hungry for content.

We're also using more data to feed that hunger. NBN says its users are now burning through an average of 148GB of data per month (compared to 70GB per month in March 2015, when Netflix launched).

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