A few short years ago, we were all mostly stuck watching broadcast free-to-air TV: news broadcasts, soaps, daytime TV, cartoons in the arvo, news at night and prime-time drama after that. But that’s not the done thing any more.
All of Netflix’s shows are available all the time — and the worldwide streaming giant knows exactly what you want, and when you want to watch it. As it turns out, Australia wants its cartoons first thing, drama at lunch and comedy in bed late at night.
This is the result of six months of analysis across 77 million Netflix accounts around the world. It’s surprisingly far from what I’d expected to see, too — although it probably doesn’t help that my personal Netflix history is a 24/7 loop of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Expanse.
Children’s programming kicks off at about 5AM — getting the kids out of bed with a show, maybe, or parents with newborns looking for any way to send them back to sleep — and ends with midnight snacking on documentaries.
In the middle of the day, though, when most Netflix watchers are out at work or at school or university, drama is the most popular — drama makes up 47 per cent of all shows watched between midday and 2PM worldwide.
Come 9PM, Australia hits its peak Netflix viewing time. That’s around the middle of the pack; India peaks at 5PM while Argentina and Singapore don’t really switch on until 10PM. We really like serious programming during this period, too — Breaking Bad and Stranger Things.
Thrillers are big during this period, but tail off by 11PM when comedy takes over. Late nights favour documentary viewing, too and a full 15 per cent of Netflix traffic is delivered between midnight and 6AM around the globe.
From Netflix: “We’ve seen that globally people tend to want to start their day with light-hearted comedy keeping the documentaries and heavier material reserved for the evening — an interesting switch from what networks have traditionally spoon-fed consumers: news in the morning and talk shows at night.”
Australia is the earliest to rise with its Netflix habits, with users logging on in significant numbers from as early as 5AM, but not the latest to sleep — South Korea and Japan are night owls and consume over a fifth of their viewing 12AM-6PM when we’re fast asleep.
One other point worth mentioning, too: apparently one of Australia’s favourite shows in the morning is Round The Twist. No surprises there.