Communications report 2011–12 series Report 1—Online video content services in Australia

Accessing OVC

Persons in households with children have higher levels of online video service usage (50 per cent) than those without children (39 per cent).

Age is again a strong predictor for OVC access, with 68 per cent users aged 18–24 accessing video content compared to only 17 per cent of persons over 65.

Households with incomes of over $90,000 per year are more likely to access OVC (56 per cent compared to a range of 32–36 per cent for other income categories) as are those who have completed a university degree (58 per cent compared to 31 per cent for those who have no formal education beyond secondary school).

Type of OVC accessed

Full-length television episodes were the most common form of video content accessed in the last six months by users of OVC services (61 per cent), followed by full-length movies (35 per cent; Figure 4). This was consistent across all age categories. Thirteen per cent had streamed or downloaded sporting events, 12 per cent had accessed music events, while 10 per cent had viewed foreign language content in the last six months.
The disparity in the popularity of online content program types overall is likely to be at least partly related to the cost in accessing content. While catch-up television such as iView and PLUS7 is available free-of-charge⁸⁰ and does not usually require a membership or subscription, accessing full-length movie content, live sports, music events, and foreign language content is more usually subject to a fee or restricted to those who have a subscription to a service such as Fetch TV or FOXTEL.

Figure Take-up of OVC services over six months to June 2012, by content type

Video content is professionally produced full-length content only and does not include user-generated content. Excludes don’t know. Multiple responses allowed. Source: ACMA-commissioned survey, June 2012.

Free-to-air television catch-up services

Consumers are engaging with FTA catch-up television services, with 11 per cent online Australians (1.5 million persons aged 18 years and over) estimated to have accessed these services during June 2012 compared to an estimated 982,000 during June 2011, a 53 per cent increase.⁸¹
During 2011–12, ABC’s iView service was by far the most popular catch-up television service (Figure 5), despite having less content available on average than other catch-up sites such as catchup.ninemsn (see Table 4). Traffic levels to catch-up television sites fluctuate on a monthly basis, likely influenced by the schedules of traditional television broadcast services. Peak ratings periods throughout the year heavily influence the broadcast schedule of popular and high-profile television programs, which in turn affects the numbers of online television audiences.
Table 12 shows the gender and age profile of users of catch-up viewing services in Australia, which are likely a reflection of programming content. For example, the catch-up viewing audiences of the Seven and Ten networks are strongly skewed toward the female population, who similarly dominate the ratings of their most popular serials, such as Home and Away and Masterchef.⁸² In contrast, the audience figures for the ABC and SBS catch- up sites are skewed toward men, most likely a product of the popularity of sports content such as Premier League Soccer, documentaries and news bulletins among men. Channel Nine had the most gender-balanced audience for its catch-up site, likely a reflection of its programming, which includes in its line up both true crime (male dominated audience) and reality television (female dominated audience).
Audience age also varies between the catch-up sites, likely a reflection of the target demographic for broadcast programming. Network Ten catch-up services have the youngest profile, with a much higher presence of persons aged 18–24 in its catch-up user audience; Network Ten has long declared its programming strategy to be focused on younger adults.

Figure Unique audience figures for Australian FTA broadcaster catch-up sites

Note: Unique audience refers to the number of people accessing a specific site during a given month, and not the number of site visits per month. Figures are not available for SBS catch-up between September and January inclusive during the transition from catch-up sites SBS player to SBS On Demand. Relates to Australians aged 2+. Source: Nielsen NetView, June 2012.

Table Profile of users of selected catch-up viewing services during June 2012 Socio-economic category TOTAL Catch-up viewing site ABC iView SBS On Demand PLUS7 ninemsn video Network TEN catch-up Gender Male 49% 60% 65% 34% 53% 35% Female 51% 40% 35% 66% 47% 65% Age 18–24 13% 15% 14% 14% 29% 27% 25–34 19% 22% 31% 22% 32% 22% 35–44 18% 21% 20% 29% 21% 25% 45–54 18% 19% 16% 19% 8% 16% 55–64 15% 14% 10% 10% 9% 7% 65+ 18% 10% 9% 6% 1% 4%

Base=Persons aged 18 years and over accessing specific site. Note: Information on catchup.ninemsn not available. Summary of percentages may not add to 100 per cent due to rounding. Source: Roy Morgan Single Source, June 2012.

Devices used to access OVC

Figure 6 shows the dominance of the laptop computer in viewing OVC, with over two thirds of those accessing OVC in the last six months using their laptop to do so. While the take-up levels of smartphones are higher among consumers than other portable devices⁸³, tablets are more commonly used as a viewing device for OVC (26 per cent). This is in keeping with international research, which indicates that its larger screen size has encouraged tablet users in particular to embrace OVC.⁸⁴
However, the increased availability of easy-to-access content for smartphones (via applications, for example⁸⁵) when combined with lower data prices is encouraging more consumers to access video services using their mobile phone. Data released by OzTAM and Nielsen indicates that in the final quarter of 2011, online consumers spent an average of one hour and twenty minutes per month watching video content on their smartphone, almost three times that seen in the first quarter of that year.⁸⁶ Still, this figure is only 41 per cent of the time the average Australian watches video content on their PC or laptop—three hours and fifteen minutes per month in the final quarter of 2011, an increase of 54 per cent on the first quarter’s figures.⁸⁷
Of the fixed technologies, the desktop computer is the most popular device on which to watch OVC (49 per cent). Internet-enabled television (21 per cent) remains a less popular viewing device than standard television, a pattern that is likely to change as internet connectivity becomes more common and older televisions replaced.⁸⁸

Figure Devices used by consumers to access OVC

Note: Video content is professionally produced full-length content only and does not include user-generated content. Multiple responses allowed. Source: ACMA-commissioned research, June 2012.

Use of multiple access devices

Just as complementarity is now a feature of the Australian telecommunications landscape,⁸⁹ multiple devices being used to access OVC to maximise viewing flexibility. As shown in Figure 7, the majority of those who access OVC use a range of different devices, with only 36 per cent using just one consumer access technology to do so. Over half of those accessing OVC used two or three technologies, while 12 per cent used four or more. The most common combination of technologies used for viewing OVC was a desktop and a laptop computer, with 56 per cent of those who had viewed content using a desktop computer also doing so with a laptop at other times.

Figure Number of devices used to access online content services

Note: Household consumers who had viewed OVC in the six months to June 2012. Due to rounding, total may not equal 100 per cent. Source: ACMA-commissioned research, June 2012.

Time-shifting access devices

The appeal of viewing content at a time and duration determined by the consumer is encouraging higher audiences for online video services, and has boosted the market for time-shifting video devices, a portion of which are supplied as part of a subscription television or IPTV service (Figure 8). At June 2012, 32 per cent of Australians aged 18 years and over with home internet access (4.5 million persons) had a time-shifting device in their home, compared to 27 per cent (3.7 million persons) at June 2011, representing a 22 per cent increase.⁹⁰

Figure Ownership of time-shifting devices among Australian consumers with home internet access

Note: Consumer data not available for June 2011 for T-Box, Apple TV and Fetch TV. IQ2 changed to IQHD during the data collection process. Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, June 2012.

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