Australians Average 85 Hours of Broadcast TV a Month

SYDNEY: The latest Australian Multi-Screen Report finds that viewers in the country are watching an average of 85 hours and 12 minutes (85:12) of broadcast TV on in-home television sets per month, down by 4:16 in a year-on-year comparison.

According to the report—from Regional TAM, OzTAM and Nielsen—there are an average of 6.4 screens per home in Australia, up from 5.4 in Q1 2012. Tablets have seen the most dramatic growth, while the number of TV sets has fallen slightly (from 2 per household to 1.9).

With more content choice and more ways to access it, Australians are spreading their screen activity. The report finds that 86.1 percent of Australians watched broadcast TV on in-home sets each week in the first quarter of 2016, down from the 88.1 percent reported in Q1 2015. Across the day, Australians spent an average of 30:38 on other TV screen use in the latest quarter, with 13:34 of that in prime time. Examples of such other TV-screen use include viewing TV network live streaming and catch-up services; watching DVDs; playing back-recorded broadcast material outside the 28-day consolidated viewing window; and internet browsing, streaming music and accessing OTT internet-delivered video services.

‘Longer-tail’ viewing is one of the factors impacting the decline in time spent viewing live broadcast-TV content, particularly in prime time. According to the report, 1.6 percent of all broadcast TV watched on in-home TV sets in any four-week period is time-shifted (played back) between 8 and 28 days of the original broadcast. In prime time, the proportion of 8- to 28-day playback rises to 2.1 percent. This ‘longer tail’ viewing is on top of broadcast TV watched live or played back within seven days.

Other findings from the report include that 22.323 million Australians watch broadcast television (free-to-air and subscription channels) each month, with average weekly reach at 86.1 percent of the population. Also, 91.2 percent of all broadcast TV viewed within seven days is live (77:44). Playback of broadcast content through the TV set within seven days comprises 8.8 percent (7:28 per month compared to 7:31 in Q1 2015).

OzTAM CEO Doug Peiffer said: “Many more screens, vastly greater content and platform choice, yet the same number of hours in the day: if anything’s surprising it’s how strong broadcast TV remains. Since 2012 the Australian Multi-Screen Report has tracked the impact of new technologies on viewing of TV and other video content. The interesting thing in the latest quarter is that 8- to 28-day playback viewing on TV sets, and VPM content played on connected devices, together add approximately 2.5 to 3 percent of viewing on top of 7-day consolidated broadcast viewing. While relatively small overall, for certain individual program episodes this longer-tail and VPM viewing can be significant.”

Deborah Wright, chair of Regional TAM and Nine Entertainment’s co-director of regional strategy, said: “With the greater choices available to consumers in both content and platforms, it is encouraging to see broadcast television continuing to deliver strong reach results to Australians via their in-home TV sets. In fact, our regional audiences spend almost 95 hours on average during a month watching broadcast television, which is 9.5 hours more per month than the national average.”