Aussies Watching More TV, Using New Screens

SYDNEY: The latest Australian Multi-Screen Report finds that Australians are watching more broadcast TV year-on-year and their take-up of new connected devices is also increasing.

The majority of Australians still watch TV at home and watch it live. In Q1 2014, Aussies watched an average of 93 hours and 16 minutes (93:16) of broadcast TV each month on their in-home TVs, which is up 37 minutes on the year-ago figure. Live viewing accounted for 92.2 percent of all TV watching, with 7.8 percent recording and watching within seven days of the original broadcast. Australians spent 7:48 per month in the quarter watching video online through a PC or laptop. Video viewing on smaller, connected devices is also rising. Of those over 16, respondents claimed to spend 1:56 per month watching any online video on their mobile phone and 1:47 on tablets. As in previous quarters, tablets have the fastest adoption rate, now in an estimated 42 percent of homes (up from 31 percent in Q1 2013 and 40 percent in Q4 2013).

Australians’ increasing take-up of online devices sees a growing number of people use these technologies for multitasking: watching TV and accessing the Internet simultaneously. Of online Australians aged 16-plus, 74 percent said they ever watch TV while using the Internet; the same as a year earlier and compared to 60 percent claiming to ever do so in 2011. Sixty-seven percent of online Australians say they do so at least once a month, and 8 percent report doing so less frequently.

Erica Boyd, Nielsen’s senior VP of cross-platform audience measurement, said: “With increasing media touch points, we are all consuming more content now than ever before: more TV, more video, more audio and more text. While video is not a primary activity conducted on mobile screens today, these additional media devices present large opportunities for programmers and advertisers to increase engagement with viewers through multi-screen strategies and ultimately better understand engagement levels of TV viewers across media touch points.
 
“The task ahead is for broadcasters and brands to work together to engage eye balls with compelling content that keeps viewers attached to the main screen when it matters. In addition, opportunities exist for those who develop smart cross-platform strategies and executions that use the second and third screens to enhance and complement the main screen, extending advertising reach and resonance and engagement across multi-screening audiences,” said Boyd.
 
Doug Peiffer, OzTAM's CEO, said: “The latest Multi-Screen Report provides an opportunity to reconsider some stereotypes about Australians’ TV habits. For example, while people 50-plus watch the most TV the drop off in younger audiences is often over-stated, and kids and 18-24s have actually increased their TV viewing on TV sets year-on-year. Though 18-24s are the heaviest viewers of video on connected devices, two-thirds of their viewing is still to broadcast TV. And the time over-50s spend watching online video each month on computers, tablets and mobiles shows Australians of all age groups are embracing the additional viewing opportunities new screens provide.”