Free to Air TV just loves Free to Air TV
Yesterday Free TV Australia, which represents Seven, Nine and TEN, released its take on the state of play.
- Published by David Knox
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So what does the Free to Air sector think of Pay TV?
Yesterday Free TV Australia, which represents Seven, Nine and TEN, released its take on the state of play.
It said that one in four pay TV subscribers are likely to cancel or downgrade their pay TV subscription because of the increased choice offered by the new free-to-air channels.
The national survey, conducted by Jigsaw Strategic Research last month, was part of a broader quantitative study of more than 1,500 digital TV viewers that explored consumers’ attitudes towards the recently launched free-to-air channels (ie. 7TWO, GO!, ONE, 7MATE and GEM as well as ABC2, ABC3, ABC News 24, SBSHD, SBSTwo).
The study found that:
* 7 out of 10 people say that free-to-air TV is getting better.
* 1 in 3 people admit that they are watching more TV now that they have access to the additional free-to-air channels.
* 6 in 10 people say that the new free-to-air channels are now part of their regular TV viewing.
* 77 per cent of people (without pay TV) are now much less or less likely to consider subscribing to pay TV because of the increased choice offered by the new free-to-air channels.
* 25 per cent of current pay TV subscribers are either very likely or likely to consider cancelling or downgrading their pay TV subscription because of the increased choice offered by the new free-to-air channels.
* 64 per cent of lapsed pay TV subscribers (those who have switched-off their pay TV service in the last 12 months) say that the increased choice offered by the new free-to-air channels was an important factor in their decision to cancel their pay TV service.
Free TV CEO, Julie Flynn, said the research recognises the quality of the new channels and reaffirms the strength of the free-to-air digital platform in Australia.
“The research highlights the increasing popularity of free-to-air television and shows how the new channels have quickly become a part of our everyday TV viewing”
Flynn adds, “The research also recognises Australians appetite for more, quality programming that you don’t have to pay for.”
It neglected to say how many of is own viewers are turning off, or indeed are downloading programmes that are delayed, interrupted or shelved.
24 Responses
Anything that is free win always be popular and especially now with more channels then ever but Pay still has more choice and I won’t be giving it up any time soon.
*Newsflash* – results of survey released by vested interest say most people think that the vested interest is wonderful. More drivel from the people so lacking in originality they had to steal their first ad from Ford. What a crock.
Free TV Australia is kidding themselves. Australia’s population is growing but overall, numbers of live TV viewers are flat-lining. There is an increasing “dark” audience who either watch recordings and skip the ads, watch via means other than FTA TV (again, no ads or no Aus ads), or just don’t find TV that appealing and don’t watch it.
This will only increase while the commercial networks continue to treat their viewers with contempt.
the only thing foxtel has got going for it is the music and sports channel and i belive sport will be the key for foxtel if they were to stay around
Maybe when free to air stations get serious about HD broadcasting and providing decent coverage of sport. Pay TV will actually have something to worry about.
a FTA survey done by the FTA networks hmmmmmmmm.
tommorow a pay tv survey done by the pay tv industry saying the complete opposite .
people take it all with a grain of salt
I think the point of the article is that people are realising you don’t need to pay money for looped repeats on foxtel anymore. They are all on digital now! (scrubs, Two and a half men etc)
haha! very obvious who has pay TV and who doesn’t from the comments! 🙂
It’s a shame that Seven, Nine, and now Tenm are offering watered-down versions of their main channels as multichannels. Ten at lest made the effort with One, but I think I would rather have a 24 hour music channel rather than Eleven. They could have a mix of SMS/1900 call voting to pay for clips, where people request the clips they want – just like TMF (The Music Factory) – and other youth/music programming, perhaps a bit like Fly TV. Would be cheap to run, and the revenue from SMS/1900 would mean they wouldn’t have to sell so much advertising.
If FTA wants to compete against pay TV they have to offer a similar range of programming that pay TV offers, so channels dedicated to sport, music, lifestyle, news etc have got to be good. We have sport,. kids and news now, lets have some more.
Nice title,says it all really
Pretty much the only reason why a person would choose to have Pay TV is because it shows a variety of sports that are not available in FTA.
If ONE is able to show more sports that people actually love, i reckon there will be more cancellations.
Take surveys about the Free TV industry commissioned by the Free TV industry with a grain of salt.
Repeats aren’t a bad thing per se. There are a lot of classic shows that haven’t been on in years which are now showing again due to the new channels. e.g. the britcoms on 72. Foxtel, now That takes the cake for repeats! If you miss something, don’t worry – it’ll be on again in 6 months (I only keep it due to the NFL games I get on there that aren’t shown on One – I came very close to cancelling, but they do have some games that One doesn’t). Merrick & Rosso made a joke about this in their last show – “this show will be repeated on Tuesday afternoons for the next 15 years”.
As for improvement in quality, yes there has been. e.g. One. Don’t base your overall attitudes on what Go does. 😉
@Earthquake, I agree. I would love a 24 hour music channel on FTA, preferably HD (think of all the special effects that go into music clips a lot of the time), preferably like rage for a good deal of the time (obviously a lot of the time it will need to be top 40 stuff, but not all the time). 🙂
Just last month I cut off my Austar subscription after 14 years, reason is, now that there are 15 FTA channels it’s not needed anymore.
There is almost always something to watch, and when there isn’t i watch the shows that I acquire by ‘other means, there are tons of shows not shown in oz that are available if you want them.
What an opinionated piece of crap Poll this is!
Just sounds like they’re tooting their own horn… so to speak. 1,500 isn’t a large group when you think of potential millions of viewers out there.
“explored consumers’ attitudes towards the recently launched free-to-air channels” – Where are the questions on the quality of programming and endless reruns of ancient series on the new channels?
“It neglected to say how many of is own viewers are turning off, or indeed are downloading programmes that are delayed, interrupted or shelved.”
I’m in that category. I don’t download shows, i simply watch them elsewhere online. I use to be one of those people who didn’t have a problem with waiting for shows to screen here. I think the quality of tv shows are great. But the quality of FTA tv in this country is crap. Shows not running on time, too many ads, cutting shows mid-season, not fasttracking shows, not showing shows at all (hello Monk & Psych), so i’ve switched the tv off and now watch online.
If you want to wait to watch things like Deadwood, Dexter, Entourage, Mad Men, The Tudors, etc for months or even years, then FTA is adequate.
If you don’t mind your movies full of ads and cut to ribbons, then FTA is adequate.
Not for me.
My Foxtel sub is one of the last things I’d ever give up!
Interesting. To be honest I don’t find myself watching more tv then what I usually do. GO!, 7two and ABC2 are the digital channels that I watch the most. With maybe watching one show a week on GEM (depending on if there’s cricket) and 7mate.
It’ll be interesting to see if people cancelled their pay tv subscription for the new digital channels or for other reasons i.e. expense and or loss of interest in the channels.
“Flynn adds, “The research also recognises Australians appetite for more, quality programming that you don’t have to pay for.”
Oh yes we love episodes of old Hogan Heroes etc etc. 😉
“more, quality programming”
She has a wonderful sense of humour.
Wonder how different these results would be if the survey was conducted in December or January?
“It neglected to say how many of is own viewers are turning off, or indeed are downloading programmes that are delayed, interrupted or shelved.”
Therein lies the rub.
I recently got FetchTV because of the STB (even though the EPG is painfully slow) and have found myself watching a lot of MTV Classic.
I am sure it is cheap for a FTA channel to have non-stop video clips playing – if they did that I probably wouldn’t bother with pay TV.
If One HD ever gets the rights to NRL repeats (like they currently do with some AFL repeats) I am sure Foxtel would lose even more subscribers.
digital channels should have quotas forcing them to show a minimum amount of new content. i think its pathetic that channels like 7two and gem fill their schedules with movies and classic shows. i dont think there is a lot more choice with digital channels, because its just mostly repeated content and unreliable programming as with the main channels.