We love TV as much as ever – in fact 99% of us own a telly.
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But despite the rise of tabs, PVR and smartphones, watching the good old TV is, in fact, still increasing.
However, we are also watching more videos from Internet on tablets, smartphones, but figures are still “low” in comparison to traditional TV, according to a new report compiled by Nielsen, OzTAM and Regional TAM.
The Australian Multi-Screen Report shows Aussie viewing habits have changed, with mobile technologies stimulating viewing of content beyond conventional TV.
But mobile video accounts for just 4% of the total content watched.
And younger age groups between 18-34 were the heaviest consumers of online videos via smartphones.
95% of all homes now have at least one digital terrestrial enabled TV set, while 44% of households have access to PVRs like T Box (up 7%), while almost 50% of us (14+) own smartphones and 10% (of metro homes) own a tablet like an iPad.
Average time spent viewing TV at home increased by 6 hrs 31mins in the last year, meaning we watch a phenomonal 113hrs 38 of TV a month, or more than 30 hours a week. Each.
That’s a massive 6.1% rise in space of a year.
Average time spent viewing (recorded) television programmes have jumped 60% to 12 hours a month, thanks to rise in PVRs and services like Optus’ TVNow and Foxtel’s similar service.
And it seems we want to watch the box on the largest screen available, with the report noting a “positive relationship “between screen size and propensity to view.
However, mobile devices like tabs and smartphones should not be ignored either with strong growth in the past year according to the report. Australians spent an average of 3 hrs 27 minutes per month watching online video in Q4 2011, up over 1 hour a year ago.
Watching video content on tablets rose to to 5% (+3%) by the end of 2011 – while videos on smaller screen smartphones is still low at 1hr 20 mins – up from just 35 mins a year ago – more than 110% growth.
77% of households are now connected to the Net and Aussies spend 43 hours 54 minutes online each month, on average.
“The introduction of DTT and time-shifted viewing, and the speed with which Australians are adopting new technology which delivers broadcast content anywhere, anytime has impacted the way in which traditional television content is accessed,” said Matt Bruce, head of Nielsen’s media industry practice group in Australia.
“New technology and devices are adding to, rather than replacing, Australians’ TV viewing,” the report states.
