Blame it on bad weather or good programming.
But Australians watched more TV than ever this summer – 13.5m tuned in every day to be precise. 

Viewers tuned in 18 minutes longer on average, to free-to-air channels, which includes SBS, ABC and Channel Seven and Nine.    

A slew of new channels have also been recently added including Go!, GEM and Seven Mate, helping to bolster the programming  offering by non-pay alternatives.             

The top programmes watched this summer was the cricket match between Australia and England Game I, watched by 2.5m Aussies, and Opera’s much hyped ‘Australian Adventure Part’s I and II’, both of which saw a record 2 million plus tune in.        

Other favourites included Glee, New Year’s Eve Countdown and Australia V England, Game II cricket game.     

However, there were differences between city viewers and their regional cousins, with urbanites watching slightly less (12 mins) than other audiences (24 mins).

In spite of this free-to-air bonanza, pay TV providers Foxtel aren’t taking it lying down and have moved to attract viewers to their digital alternatives, with the launch of new IPTV services, set to be embedded into new Internet TV’s.

These will deliver up to 1600 BigPond Movies ranging in price from $3.99 to $6.99 V’s over $100 a month subscription to get the Foxtel services that deliver both Sport and Movie content.    

Optus and Telstra are also racking up their internet TV offerings with the onslaught of Google and Apple TV this year.   

However, opinion among many analysts is that pay for TV is largely on the way out here with more Australians than ever logging on to Internet TV and pre-recorded programmes, which for the most part is free, and watch around 19 hours of online content alone per week, according to research.