It’s official: New research shows streaming has finally overtaken TV and radio in Australia

Welcome to a Tuesday update from Unmade. Today: We can reveal that new government funded research shows that for the first time, Australians now spend more time watching streaming subscription services than they do free to air television. And more of them now listen to audio content via streaming than the radio.

Plus, further down, we cover off a shocker of a day on the ASX as the Unmade Index is dragged down to a new low.

The content of today’s full post – and there are some incredible stats – is available only to Unmade’s paying members. That could be you. Not only can you see today’s members-only edition, but you get access to the full Unmade archive, which goes behind a paywall two months after publishing.

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Inflection point: We’ve just reached the moment when streaming overtook broadcasting

It’s not the snappiest title. “Communications and media in Australia: How we watch and listen to content” doesn’t do justice to the gold contained in the annual research report funded by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

The data, which has been tracked for the last seven years, tells much of what we need to know about the trajectory of mass media in Australia.

One mystery is why the latest report was released with so little fanfare. It was quietly uploaded to the ACMA website at the end of last year without a press release or announcement. As far as I can tell, I’m the first journalist to stumble upon it.

A possible reason for the low key approach may be political: With media regulations before Parliament, some of the data about the swing towards streaming undermines arguments of those lobbying for special treatment for the TV companies around sports rights.

Trends covering television and radio leap out.

In 2023, viewers for the first time spent more time watching paid streaming services – an average of 5.8 hours per week (up from 5.5 hours in 2022) – than they did free to air television which fell from 6.6 hours to 5.6 hours.

Startlingly, in the key advertising demographic of 25-to-34, the group seems close to abandoning the traditional TV broadcasters, spending an average of just 1.4 hours a week with live TV and just 1.2 hours on catchup free to air. That’s compared to seven hours on paid streaming services and 6.4 hours per week on Reels and TikTok-style short form content.

We’ll dig into all of that more in a moment, including the broadcasters’ case for (some) optimism when you delve further into the numbers.

And radio hit a similar inflection point in this new data. The number of people who said they listened to the radio over the previous week fell from 75% to 69%. That saw radio overtaken by music streaming where the number was 70%. And for the first time, the data shows that most Australians no longer have a radio at home.

There’s a lot more detail below the paywall.

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It’s worth making a point about this type of research, by the way. Just like OzTAM, GfK and the rest, this study is based on extrapolating from a sample of the population. There’s no magic black box inside every single home monitoring consumer behaviour. The consumers being asked how many hours they watched or listened, are making their best guess. But over time, trends emerge.

What also matters is the sample size. In this case, it’s well above the rule-of-thumb 1000 respondents for a decent survey. The total sample was 3,572, most of whom were online interviews, supplemented with a few phone interviews. The survey took place during a fortnight in June, with each interview taking an average of 23 minutes.

Let’s get into the data…

Viewing behaviour

The most likely activity for somebody turning on a television is now to watch a paid streaming service (66% – up from 59% in 2023).

Watching live TV has declined from 56% to 52%.

However – and this is one area of positivity for the broadcast sector, ad-supported streaming in also on the up, from 38% to 43%.

And one other intriguing morsel can be found in this slide: The survey has started asking about short form video of the type found on TikTok and Instagram Reels. It’s already overtaken broadcast television, up from 44% to 57%.

Viewing among the demos

A bigger worry for the local TV establishment is that only 18% of 18-to-24-year-olds watched live TV. That was down from 45% in 2017.

By contrast, 86% watched short form video on TikTok or elsewhere.

The number in the 18-24 demo using the free catchup services actually fell, from 23% to 19%. Viewing of the paid streaming services rose to 69%.

A caveat, by the way: In this demographic, the sample size was less than 100, which is low.)

In the key advertiser demographic of 25-34, less than one in three people watched free to air TV, while slightly more watched catch up TV.

Time spent watching

A key chart covers actual consumption, or time spent watching.

One slightly reassuring detail – for now – for the television establishment is that adding together live TV viewing (5.6 hours per week) with free to air catchup streaming (2.1 hours), that 7.7 hours is still more than subscription TV’s 5.8 hours.

However, it’s only half of the ten hours being achieved as recently as 2018.

Tthe TikTok effect shows short form video rising fast, reaching 4.4 hours per week. among all viewers.

In the youngest demographic of 18-24, that short form number is massive, with 11.1 hours of short form content, 4.3 hours of paid streaming and less than an hour of live TV per week.

We now come on to the most thought provoking chart of all. Even in 25-34 (which is the the lower half of the key 25-54 advertiser target demo), live free to air and ad-supported catchup is only capturing 2.6 hours of viewing per week. That’s tiny compared to 6.4 hours of short form content and 7 hours of paid streaming.

The BVOD battleground

On to the case for hope for the home team. When it comes to individual ad-supported viewing services, the three commercial players are all in growth, with 7plus making the most progress, up from 33% reach to 41%. That overtakes 9Now, which rose from 32% to 37%. Meanwhile, 10play rose from 20% to 23%.

Concerningly for the public broadcasters, the ABC’s iView fell from 61% to 58%, while SBS on Demand slipped slightly from 42% to 41%, putting it neck-and-neck with 7plus.

The platforms

The state of play of the streaming platforms is also highlighted in the data. YouTube tops the list with 63% reach, just ahead of Netflix’s 61%.

Disney+ has plateaued at 28%, while Stan, owned by Nine, has fallen to 22%.

Amazon Prime Video – about to turn on a default ad tier locally in the next few months is fgrowing strongly at 25% reach.

Foxtel Group’s Bing and Kayo, and Paramount+ are also still in growth mode.

Meta is also a major player in short form, with 24% using Instagram Reels and 38% using Facebook video. TikTok is on 18%.

Number of subs

Despite the rising costs, consumers are still signing up for more services. A total of 34% said they have access to five or more paid subscription services.

Smart TV ownership

Data which inflames the media regulation debate is smart TV ownership. That number has now reached 78%. Smart TVs have the ability to stream content which weakens the argument of the free to air players that they should have exclusive access to sports on the anti-siphoning list.

Even in the very oldest age group of 75+, 73% of people now have a smart TV.

Radio’s reducing role

The number of people with a radio at home has now falling below half, with just 44% now doing so. That was down from 53% in 2022.

In another shift, 69% said they listened to the radio over the last seven days, overtaken by the 70% who said they listened to a music streaming service.

The shift has been fastest in the 18-24 demo. From 76% of them listening to the radio in 2017, now just 34% said they did so. But 94% said they listened to a music streaming service.

Listening across all forms of radio, including DAB+, is declining, the numbers suggest.

There’s so much useful data in this report, I recommend spending time with it. You can find it on the ACMA website, via this link.

Unmade Index back in the basement

The Unmade Index hit a new low yesterday, following the wider ASX downwards to lose 1.61% and land at 562.6 points. Yesterday saw the worst day in a year on the ASX with a widespread selloff.

Yesterday’s number was the lowest point in the two-and-a-bit year history of the Unmade Index, which tracks the locally listed media and marketing stocks. The index has lost 44% in value since launch.

From the big end of town, Nine saw the biggest fall, losing 2.73%. Seven West Media fell back to its low point after losing 2.44%, and Ooh Media lost 2.2%.

Time to leave you to your Tuesday. Thank you, as always, for supporting Unmade through your membership.

We’ll be back with more tomorrow.

Have a great day.

Toodlepip…

Tim Burrowes

Publisher – Unmade

tim@unmade.media

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