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TV heartbeat: viewers go channel-surfing in ad breaks

Around 250,000 viewers go channel-surfing every ad break on commercial networks.

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If TV audiences were linked to a heartbeat monitor then a night of viewing would look something like this….

There are sharp rises and falls across the night, all punctuated by commercial breaks, or the end of a show.

On any given night, commercial breaks are seeing around 250,000 viewers change channels for a few minutes before returning.

On Sunday night My Kitchen Rules had 1.47m viewers watching at 9:37pm. By 9:40pm there were 1.16m viewers, a drop of 310,000 viewers.

Fortunately it climbed back to 1.4m viewers by 9:47pm. But it’s typical of the kind of pendulum that swings across commercial network viewing night after night.

The Voice had 1.36m viewers watching at 8:29m on Sunday, dropping to 1.08m at 8:32pm, a fall of 280,000 before climbing to 1.35m at 8:35pm

Bachelor in Paradise was 785,000 at 8:44pm on Sunday, dipping to 580,000 at 8:47pm and back to 790,000 at 8:49pm.

Trends suggest around 25% of audiences are channel-surfing during ad breaks on commercial Free to Air, but potentially sampling other content instead. Undoubtedly some will be moving to SVOD, catch-up or PVR recordings or even turning off their set altogether. But in most cases the numbers suggest viewers return each time.

It’s why TV shows are averaged across their broadcasts by OzTAM, but partly speaks to networks preferring Peaks in their media releases.

While ABC sees ebbs and flows with their audiences, it sees more consistency with viewing patterns. SBS, which does have commercial breaks, sees less dramatic fluctuation with their audiences than commercial networks.

Channel surfing viewers will see less advertising content, but also fewer network promos, forcing networks to become strategic with in-programme advertising, watermarks and pop-ups.

Even those that remain on the channel may mute the sound, read their mobile / tablet (in those cases the network still gets the numbers) or head to the kitchen or bathroom. For accuracy OzTAM expects its users to indicate when they have left the room.

Research also indicates Men reach for the remote faster than Women.

In 2016 Google and Ipsos found only 35% of paid TV ad breaks were actively viewed.

Percentage of time skipped across the ad break in 2016

18 Responses

  1. While on this subject I forgot to mention an experience with SBS on Demand when checking a movie ending , I fast forwarded the stream to the final few minutes just to view the endng but was hijacked by several short ads some of which were repeated constantly as if in a loop, this took some minutes to complete and though amusing at the time did make me wonder about the priorities of the SBS who do receive public funding after all.

  2. Maybe becuase now we enjoy add free streaming services there seems to be more adds on FTA tV .and it seems the same adds are being repeated over and over and over again the frequency seems to be more but yes I channel surf between adds mostly tune in to ABC news24 during the add breaks .my consumption of FTA TV is so much less nowadays the odd show on commercial tV and mostly ABC TV and streaming services we watch .

    1. i get where you’re coming from but i don’t think it is that, i have timed ad breaks at 7.30 timeslot on the Voice & MKR at 5 minutes, yes 5 minutes! this was a rarity say 5 years ago, but now its a frequent occurance…

  3. I totally tune out during the ad breaks on TV and look at something on the computer or my phone. Same goes when I watch commercial TV catch-up on the computer. As soon as the ads come on I have a look at something else on the computer until I hear the show start up again.
    Was forced to watch MKR the other night. Couldn’t believe how long and how frequent the ad breaks were. Any wonder people are preferring Netflix and Stan.

  4. This doesn’t surprise me. I do it a lot and if I don’t change the channel I’m on my tablet looking at other stuff while the ads are on.

  6. On the odd occasion I have found myself switching and then ‘forgetting’ to switch back…can be one of three reasons of course, the first show just did not keep my attention and I found something else, the second show caught my attention and I stayed on that channel or maybe just plain old age and I did forget I was actually watching something else! Nah can never be #3…

  7. I leave the room when the ads are on, normally have enough time, to boil the kettle, run down to Coles grab a bottle of milk, come home and make my coffee and then by the time I sit back down, I feel as though I haven’t missed a second…

  8. The ads are becoming unbearable. Not only do you waste time watching them but then you often get a recap when you come back as if you’ve forgotten what happened 4 minutes ago. The Voice the worst offender of the lot. Not to mention all the fake drama they tease during the week in their promos.

    1. Ditto, i really tried to watch the Voice this year but even on timeshifting it becomes exhausting trying to fwd thru the ads etc. Most 7.30 timeslot shows are bad like this but the Voice is probabky the worst.
      I really need to break my ‘broadcast’ tv addiction..

  9. I must confess that I watch little commercial TV now,but its obvious that the ever revenue hungry mainstream channels match up the timing of ad breaks during prime time viewing with FTA live sports being the exception. I would predict that the American/Canadian style pop up advertising will be imposing itself along the bottom of the TV screen more sooner than later which I’m sure will encourage more viewers to explore pay TV. There’s certainly a battle going on with those tech savvy viewers who have rejected advertising imposts thanks mostly to PVR’s, Smart Phones and the popularity of streaming.

    1. I don’t believe that our Networks are smart enough to synchronise ad breaks, their forte is ensuring that their program start times never co-incide with other channels or match the EPG. With almost 30% of screen time devoted to ads/promos the odds of channel switching to avoid them is pretty low.
      Officially, ads are confined to ad-breaks but pop-up promos with a sponsor name would be a grey area.

    1. Yes and no. Where you have a 1 hr show it stands to reason the spots will be around similar intervals. Otherwise it is pretty random, sometimes you will spot another break and other times you won’t.

  12. … or we just record everything [series link etc makes this so easy] to watch what we want, when we want – and we simply skip all ad breaks!

    I also wonder how long it will be until Foxtel goes full streaming – they should – to survive.

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