At iTWire, we let a poll run for a full month asking the question “Do you plan to quit Foxtel and try Netflix instead?”

We tried to make sure that we gave respondents as many possible choices to cover their range of different circumstances rather than make it just a simple Yes/No poll.

The results are below:

We’re not professional pollsters so we make no claim that this is a scientifically accurate poll. However, it does give a pretty fair indication of where our readers’ sentiments lay.

With 1232 respondents, the results speak for themselves. Nearly one third of the respondents (30.8%) already only have Netflix and nothing else; a further 10.1% currently have both Netflix and Foxtel; and 16.2% plan to quit Foxtel and get Netflix.

Meanwhile, a mere 8.7% answered that they planned to keep just Foxtel, plus a further 4.3% will keep Foxtel and get another SVOD such as Netflix, Presto or Stan. To speak plainly, for Foxtel this a horrible set of numbers.

We naturally have a highly tech oriented audience. However, when it comes to tech matters our readers are among the influencers that nudge mainstream consumers in certain directions when making their tech choices.

Foxtel of course is not alone in coming face to face with the massive market disruption caused by SVOD. Cable operators the world over - not least in the US - are facing the same problem, as articles like this one in the Wall Street Journal and others have pointed out for at least a year. Consumers are demanding that their viewing entertainment be on demand and unbundled.

However, this is not the end of the story for the Australian market there’s far more to come.

Now that Australian viewers have been given a taste of subscription streaming services like the watered down local version of Netflix, they will inevitably want more. They will want access to other SVOD services like Hulu and HBO - and they will want access to the same range of content available to US consumers.

After years of being told that they live in a global marketplace and must accept that the cost of their labour now has to compete with second and third world rates, consumers are starting to demand that they have free access to global entertainment markets at global rates. The end of geographical restrictions on the provision of content is the new battlefront.