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Broadcast TV hits back, still the dominant player.

What streaming? Live TV on the big screen TV still rules the roost.

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In the face of streaming TV players, Live broadcast TV viewing on the traditional TV is still overwhelmingly the dominant platform.

The latest Australian Multi-Screen Report, issued by OzTAM, RegionalTAM and Nielsen, indicates Australians watched an average of 90 hours and 27 minutes per month of broadcast television (including free-to-air and subscription channels) in Q4 2014.

While that figure was down from 96 hours and 58 minutes in Q3 2014 (and 99 hours and 9 minutes in late 2012), OzTAM reminds us people watch more television in winter and less in summer, with the start of daylight saving time.

The number also dwarfs 7 hours and 28 minutes per month averaged for online video on a PC or laptop.

However online video use rose from 5:52 a year earlier -and the survey was completed before the launches of Presto TV, Stan and Netflix.

91.9% of all in-home TV viewing in Q4 2014 was Live, up by 0.3% on Q3 2014. In mid 2013 the figure was 93%.

Playback (or timeshifted) was at 8.1%, down by 0.3% on Q3. However it was up 34 minutes when comparing it with Q4 2013. In mid 2013 the figure was 7%.

Internet-capable TVs are now in 30% of homes, up by another 1% on Q3. But it was 23% a year ago. 47% of homes have tablets, up from 40% in Q4 2013.

88 per cent of all video viewing took place on TV sets in Q4 2014. TV is overwhelmingly the dominant platform, but amongst teens the smartphone is second choice, whereas for all other groups the PC / Laptop ranks second.

73% of Australians aged 16+ own a smartphone, compared to 68% per cent in Q4 2013.

80 per cent of homes have an internet connection, unchanged over the past seven quarters.

The vast majority of all TV viewing is live, with less than 10 per cent viewed in playback mode. However all age groups have increased their playback viewing in each of the past four calendar years, with 13-17s’ playback steady in the latest year-on-year period.

OzTAM CEO Doug Peiffer said: “The Multi-Screen Report shows how life stage impacts media use across devices. Teens have always been the lightest TV viewers, and as people get older and have children they stay home more and watch more TV. Now however Australians of all ages are viewing more on second screens, and their overall use of the TV screen is growing too. But people still turn to the main household TV first and will continue to do so. The death of TV will follow the death of the couch.”

Regional TAM Chair and NBN Television CEO Deborah Wright commented: “This issue of the Multi-Screen Report highlights the continuing dominance of television as the primary screen in the household, and regional viewers are in fact consuming more TV on average per month when compared to 2013. This again showcases the strength of broadcast television and, in particular, regional television.”

14 Responses

  2. I don’t think 18-25’s watching less TV than others is necessarily linked to technology and options – in the early 1990’s when I was in that age group, I watched almost no TV as was busy working and going out all the time. Was similar for alot of friends as well. Back then FTA and hiring videos were the only options.

  4. This could be a totally different picyure in 2-3 years time. NBN will have rolled out, streaming services will be consolidated and this will be potentially the final phase of mass broadcast tv. Certianly I would expect a consolidation of the comm channels…

    1. I don’t know where you live. I’m in Sydney and I don’t expect the NBN to come to me in my lifetime. Luckily I can see the local exchange from the front door and I get 22 mB/s ADSL unlimited for $29/month

  5. Wow, read all thats stats from OZTAM and it sounds like broadcast TV is doing just hunkey dorey!

    Live + same day viewing figures are still down 25% on what they were 5 years ago.

    And streaming only began a month ago…..

  6. All true, but given the NFL in the US are about to show a game only on its streaming platform and not on any TV platform, they are kidding themselves that the landscape is not going to change. Oddly, both Foxtel/Seven West Media and Nine/Fairfax have made significant investment in streaming platforms and products.

    1. And of course Australia has to move up the ladder from #44 for Internet availability and speed. There’s a false assumption in all of this that everyone has high-speed internet, or indeed any form of cable internet at all.

  8. Whilst these figures may be somewhat true, they fail to acknowledge that people under about the age of 25 simply don’t watch broadcast TV, at all. The only exception may be the occasional sporting event.

    1. People under 25 do watch TV, look at the 16-34 figures, not all those viewers can be 26-34.

      TV is not going to disappear. It’s going to change though, just as radio and cinema did when TV came along. Yes most of TV is still watched live, but most of TV viewing is now news, sport, talk and contest shows. Movie viewing has largely moved to DVD, timeshifting, Pay TV and now streaming. Drama appears to be going the same way. A few years ago big US shows would get close to 2m viewers, now 600k is good.

      Summer/Daylight savings typically takes 10-15% off viewer numbers.

    2. True Bazza and the technolgy fluent over 55’s, 65’s and 75’s (yep there are a lot of us, but we once weren’t) don’t “watch” live broadcast tv either, preferring to stow the broadcast tv progamming in EHD’s and do our own scheduling. Waiting for an Aus FTA TV Network to air a full series of anything over the years was a painful experience and over many years those +55ers buildup a huge libraries allowing conversion from VHS, Beta and DVD to .MP4 and/or .AVI and all the time technology is changing with editing facilities that allows us now to shove it in all our other devices after processing. Having Netflix is going to make life pretty boring 😀

    3. I know that’s the prevailing view – but I don’t think it’s as simple as that. Yeah, the 0-25 demos (0-13, 14-17, 18-24) tend to watch significantly less TV than people 25+ – but that’s been the case for at least the last 20 years. The % change between demos hasn’t really varied significantly over that time either, which suggests that there’s not a ‘lost generation’ who just aren’t watching TV anymore.

      What you do see is a ‘flattening’, or maybe the result of a growing ‘long tail’ (it’s a bit hard to tell from the data I have). Outside of ‘events’, you dont get programmes with 50% audience share anymore – but what you do get is a lot more even spread of the audience across the Top 50 & Top 100. 5 years ago there were no programmes with less than 30% in the top 50; now there’s several…

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