Advanced Television

Australians prefer live TV

February 7, 2014

The latest Australian Multi-Screen Report, covering the third quarter of calendar 2013, shows Australians overwhelmingly prefer live to recorded television, and that they gravitate towards the largest available screen.

Overall use of the in-home television set is steady year-on-year, and people’s viewing patterns are broadening with their continued uptake of new and different screen types.

Other findings include:

– Internet capable TVs are now in 22 per cent of homes (18 per cent in Q3 2012).

– With the analogue switch-off imminent, 99 per cent of homes had converted to digital terrestrial television (DTT) by Q3 2013, and 89 per cent had converted every working TV in their homes.

– An estimated 37 per cent of homes now have tablets, up from 22 per cent in Q3 2012 and 33 per cent in Q2 2013.  Across the online population aged 16+, people claim to spend an average 50 minutes (0:50) per month1 using tablets to watch any online video, which can include both broadcast TV and non-broadcast content.

– 67 per cent of Australians aged 16+ own a smartphone (56 per cent in Q3 2012). People spend an average 1:20 per month watching any online video on their phones.

– Australians watch an average of 5:18 per month of any internet video via PCs/laptops (both television broadcast and non-broadcast content).

– PVR penetration has been relatively steady in recent quarters, now in 53 per cent of Australian homes (50 per cent in Q3 2012).

–  93 per cent of that television viewing is live. The other 7 per cent (7:10) is to broadcast content that people record and Playback within seven days.  Recorded material viewed between eight and 28 days later however is minimal. For example, in weeks 9-12, 2013, such activity comprised only a 0.93 per cent share of all viewing, and resulted in a TARP gain of just 0.12 per cent.

– Total Use of the television set is stable year-on-year and the way people use their sets is evolving with the progressive adoption of new technologies attached to the TV set (such as PVRs, games consoles and ‘over-the-top’ services) and also as Internet capable televisions become  more commonplace.

– The continued increase in recorded TV content people Playback within seven days, along with Other TV Screen Usage, balance the slight decline in Live Viewing.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Consumer Behaviour, Equipment, In Home, Mobile, OTT, Portable Media, PVR, Research