Findings from Roy Morgan Research reveal that 95.4 per cent of Australians watch TV – but exactly what ‘watching TV’ even means has been changing fast, says the firm. Nine in 10 Australians 14+ (90.2 per cent) watched any ‘Linear’ free-to-air (FTA) television during an average week in the first four months of 2016: they turned a TV on and watched the broadcast from network Seven, Nine, Ten, ABC, SBS or an affiliate or secondary channel (that thing we could all once just call ‘watching TV’ without further explanation, notes Roy Morgan Research).

But over a third of Australians now watch TV ‘On Demand’ in an average four weeks (34.8 per cent). This includes either free or paid ‘non-linear’ viewing, from the networks’ catch-up TV services to Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD), including Foxtel’s offerings.  Finally, over a quarter of Australians watch ‘linear’ Foxtel from a set-top box in an average four weeks (26.7 per cent).
Many Australians now watch TV in multiple ways:

• 43.2 per cent of Australians watch only traditional Linear FTA broadcasts, with no Foxtel and no On Demand. In 2016, most Linear FTA viewers now also watch Foxtel and/or On Demand.
• 22.3 per cent watch Linear FTA and On Demand; 15.9 per cent watch Linear FTA and Foxtel; and only 0.7 per cent watch Foxtel and On Demand but no Linear FTA broadcasts.
• 3.1 per cent watch only On Demand TV; and 1.4 per cent watch only Foxtel.
• 8.7 per cent of Australians now watch all three forms of TV.
• The remaining 4.6 per cent watch no television.

“Since early 2015 we have been measuring with greater detail than ever before the incremental audience reach, overlap and exclusive watching of On Demand and streaming audiences,” explained Tim Martin, General Manager – Media, Roy Morgan Research.

“Now, for the first time in the Australian market, Roy Morgan is able to compare and contrast the size and reach of each of FTA terrestrial television and On Demand TV including Netflix, Stan, Presto, Foxtel Go, Foxtel Play. This provides some really interesting insights which will be useful for broadcasters and cross platform media owners as the media landscape continues to fragment. One such insight is more people collectively watch any form of On Demand than watch Foxtel through the Set Top Box.

“Roy Morgan recently announced enhancements to its system of media measurement. The new data will transform how publishers, advertisers and media agencies understand and measure online behaviour. Underpinning the data is ‘gold standard’ research, using a probabilistic sample recruited face-to-face – simply the only way to produce results that can be reliably projected to the total population. This research is supplemented by machine based online data collected via software, as well as data collected from digital pixels placed on websites. This approach now captures online media visitation across all platforms, operating systems and devices to generate the most accurate and comprehensive view of online behaviour in Australia,” he stated

Categories: Articles, Consumer Behaviour, OTT, Research, VOD