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.
Broadcast TV viewing is robust, at nearly 96 hours per Australian each month. Smaller mobile devices create additional opportunities to consume television and other video content, complementing the time people spend watching TV in their homes.
Majority of screen time spent with broadcast TV; most viewing is Live; household take-up of new technologies continues to grow
Internet capable TVs are now in 22 percent of homes (18 percent in Q3 2012). With the analogue switch-off imminent, 99 percent of homes had converted to digital terrestrial television (DTT) by Q3 2013, and 89 percent had converted every working TV in their homes.
An estimated 37 percent of homes now have tablets, up from 22 percent in Q3 2012 and 33 percent in Q2 2013. Across the online population aged 16+, people claim to spend an average 50 minutes (0:50) per month using tablets to watch any online video, which can include both broadcast TV and non-broadcast content.
67 percent of Australians aged 16+ own a smartphone (56 percent 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 percent of Australian homes (50 percent in Q3 2012).
This edition of the Multi-Screen Report contains a special study on viewing of recorded broadcast TV content (Playback) that happens beyond eight and up to 28 days from original broadcast time.
To put such viewing in context: Australians spend an average 95 hours and 51 minutes (95:51) per month watching broadcast TV on conventional in-home television sets.
93 percent of that television viewing is Live. The other 7 percent (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 percent share of all viewing, and resulted in a TARP gain of just 0.12 percent.
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.
The amount of Total TV Screen Use and how it is used vary by age. Compared to other age groups, people 13-17 devote the greatest proportion of their time with the TV set to Other Usage however they still spend about two thirds of their screen time watching broadcast television.
Each age group uses the TV screen differently overall as well as at different times during the day.
For example, overall TV use in the morning (TARP %) is greatest among children under 12, while Other TV Screen Usage during the day by teens is large compared to All People and is also a major part of teens’ overall TV use during the day.
Source: OzTAM/Regional TAM/ Nielsen
