Australians Are Switching Their TV Watching To Tablets And Smartphones

Australians say that watching TV is their number one activity — but not necessarily on a TV screen. Deloitte’s yearly Media Consumer Survey is out, and its 2300 respondents are increasingly switching to tablets and smartphones for everything they do.

Interestingly, Deloitte marks 2014 as the year for one big tipping point. In this most recent survey, 64 per cent of Australians say their preferred method of consuming media is watching TV, but an extremely close 63 per cent say they’re more interested in social media and personal internet use.

81 per cent of Australians own a smartphone, and 63 per cent own a tablet — and these are being pushed along by those Aussies aged 48 and older. Many of those — 80 per cent — will be using their mobile device while watching TV, but barely a fifth of those second-screeners are actually researching content related to the show they’re watching.

72 per cent of Australians “binge-watch” three or more episodes of a TV show in the row when given the chance, and 26 per cent do that every week. Almost half of the survey’s respondents said they download or rent TV shows and movies online (although it’s not immediately clear how much of that is illegitimate) — much improved over the quarter that still visit a Blockbuster or Video Ezy or other physical rental store.

You can read the Deloitte Media Consumer Survey 2014 here. [Deloitte]


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