By Grant Shepherd

SYDNEY: Online movie rental business Quickflix has continued to defy the economic downturn and has once again significantly improved its membership base, demonstrating that consumers are definitely changing their viewing habits.

According to the company’s quarterly update, it has witnessed growth in its payed subscriber base as at June 2009, with 29,910 subscribers, this is up eight per cent from the previous quarter and 29 per cent from the same period last year.

According to Quickflix, improved membership plans and service enhancements has increased membership retention with paying member churn averaging 4.2 per cent per month over the quarter, down from 4.6 per cent in the March quarter and 6.1 per cent a year ago.

In addition to this revenue receipts grew by 12 per cent to 6.9 million, operating payments were down by 14 per cent to $7.4 million and net cash outflow reduced from $4.95 million in the previous year to $1.48 million for the year ended 30 June 2009.

Quickflix managing director Simon Hodge, commented that the result was very pleasing seeing as the result was on the back of recent changes to its marketing expenditure.

“In the June quarter, Quickflix repeated the solid growth in paying subscribers of the previous quarter. This was all the more pleasing as it was achieved on a reduced marketing spend,” he said.

Hodge also discussed how the business is benefiting off changing consumer viewing habits.

“Our service offering is in the sweet spot for Australian householders looking for affordable quality entertainment. As a brand we also have early mover advantage as increasingly consumers turn to online,” he said.

If this result was not pleasing enough, Quickflix is also expecting even more subscriber and revenue growth in the September quarter, due to an increase in marketing activity across a range of existing channels and new partners like Virgin Mobile.

“The economic environment, including the increasing level of entertainment consumption at home and a soft advertising market will continue to be very favourable for Quickflix.”

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