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Business Environment Profiles - Australia

Total minutes of TV watched

Published: 12 September 2024

Key Metrics

Total minutes of TV watched

Total (2025)

101 Minutes

Annualized Growth 2020-25

-6.7 %

Definition of Total minutes of TV watched

This report analyses the average amount of time that Australians spend watching free-to-air and subscription television every day. The data for this report is sourced from a range of surveys, including from companies such as ThinkTV, Samba TV, Nielsen, Roy Morgan and OzTAM. The data in this report is measured as the average number of minutes of television watched per person per day and is presented in calendar years.

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Recent Trends – Total minutes of TV watched

IBISWorld forecasts the average amount of time that Australians spend watching television each day to drop by 0.8% in 2024-25 to 100.7 minutes. The amount of daily time spent watching both free-to-air and pay television programs is expected to slip in 2024. Changes in real household disposable income correlate with heightened spending on entertainment like pay television. The rising prevalence of remote working since the onset of the pandemic has allowed more time for consumers to lean into pay television services. However, the pandemic has accelerated the uptake of digital services, marking a permanent shift, including those competing with television for consumers' time, including streaming services like Netflix and Stan and social media platforms. YouTube and TikTok, in particular, had an immense, consistent uptake in recent years, with Australians aged 16 to 64 on Android having an average daily usage of close to one and a half hours on the platform per day, according to Meltwater, a leader in social media market research. It has ultimately been the convenience and accessibility of these SVOD and social media services that have continued to eat away at the demand for traditional television.

The time Australians spend watching television each day has faltered over the past five years. The introduction of US-based SVOD provider Netflix into the Australian market in March 2015 has provided viewers with a low-cost alternative to pay-TV provider Foxtel. Netflix and its local competitor Stan have also affected the market for commercial free-to-air operators Seven, Nine and Ten. Amazon Prime Video launched in Australia in December 2016 and Disney Plus entered the Australian market in November 2019, intensifying competition. Foxtel also launched its streaming app Binge in May 2020 to offset the negative impact of streaming services on demand for its services. Older demographics are the largest consumers of television. These consumers have been slower in adopting new technologies like SVOD. In addition, retired consumers spend more time at home and watch more television compared with working consumers.

Free-to-air and pay-TV broadcasters are relying more on programs that consumers prefer to watch live, like sports and reality TV. SVOD services have yet to delve extensively into live content, allowing broadcasters to capture and sustain attention from this market. However, over the past five years, even this advantage has been slowly eroded. For instance, the subscription streaming service Kayo Sports, a wholly owned subsidiary of Foxtel, launched in November 2018, offering both live and on-demand sports video. Additionally, free-to-air channels have moved more content online to meet consumer demand, which has further reduced the amount of time spent by Australians watching television. Overall, IBISWorld forecasts the average time that Australians spend watching free-to-air and subscription TV every day to drop off at a compound annual rate of 6.7% over the five years through 2024-25.

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5-Year Outlook – Total minutes of TV watched

IBISWorld forecasts the average amount of time spent watching television per day to total 100.5 m...

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