Viewers in Australia are increasingly switching off live commercial TV and finding new ways to watch their shows, according to research firm Roy Morgan research. The proportion of viewers aged 14 and above who views any commercial TV on a normal weekday has declined by over 3% since 2009, while uptake of online streaming, time-shifting devices and Internet connected TV grows.
The proportion of viewers in Australia who stream online television has tripled in three years from 3% to 9%, and ownership of Smart TVs has grown from fewer than one in 60 in 2009 to one in 10 in 2013, said the firm.
Additionally, the penetration of time-shifting Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) has almost doubled from 16% to 29% in the same period. The proportion of consumers with a Pay TV subscription in their home is up 5% points to almost 30%, added Roy Morgan.
The firm noted these newer TV technologies each impact differently on commercial TV viewership, with online streaming via computer or mobile device clearly the most influential determinant.
Roy Morgan also found that in the six months to December 2012, viewers who streamed TV were significantly more likely to be commercial TV teetotallers (17% watched no commercial TV versus the national 9.5%), and the 83% of streamers who watched some commercial TV did so substantially less than average; nationally, around a third of people are light commercial TV watchers (less than two hours per day) and another third are considered heavy TV watchers ( more than three hours). Among TV streamers light watchers outnumber heavy watchers by almost 2.5: 1, and there are only marginally more heavy viewers than non-viewers.
The largest bloc of streaming TV viewers is men aged 25-34, of whom 18% stream TV-almost double the national rate. This group is also the most likely to avoid commercial TV altogether, but more than one in three of these young men stream TV instead.
Article translated by Alex Wolfgram
