Samsung reveals TV viewership in Australia is growing but becoming increasingly fragmented

“The days of streaming as an emerging behavior are over; its core to how people watch. We are seeing increases in streaming across all states, even post-lockdown. What this data tells us is that TV viewership in Australia is not only growing but increasingly fragmenting,” said Alex Spurzem, the general manager for Australia at Samsung Ads.

“More than half of Samsung TV users are hard to reach on linear TV because they are either exclusively streamers or spend very little time watching linear. Now more than ever, it’s very easy to overexpose heavy linear viewers and miss other audiences entirely.”

He added: “Advertisers should consider adjusting their strategies to reach viewers where they are which, according to our data, is predominately in streaming environments. But we cannot apply broad strokes to these TV watchers, as their viewing habits are diversifying and evolving constantly. Balancing reach and frequency among Streamers, and linear watchers is now critical to campaign success.”

What does the data show?

• In regions with longer lockdowns like New South Wales, devices registered a 35% increase in streaming time, taking devices to an average of three hours and three minutes a day.

• Time spent watching linear TV grew 9% during the lockdown period when daily average viewing time grew from one hour 24 mins pre-lockdown to one hour 32 mins.

• Linear watching peaked in August, with an average daily viewing time of one hour and 39 minutes, as the Olympics was going on during that time.

• Almost 8% of Samsung’s total TV universe in Australia are exclusive linear watchers. only interacting with this traditional form of TV viewing.

• Heavy linear watchers (who make up one-third of all Samsung TV linear watchers) consume three-quarters of the total linear viewing time.

• In comparison, 23% of Samsung’s total TV universe in Australia are exclusively streamers.

• The percentage of audiences that are exclusive streamers grew by 22% from July to November 2021.

• Light streamers watched an additional four hours on average per month during this period, equating to a growth of 39%.

• Time spent on SVOD (subscription video on demand) increased 47% during the lockdown period overall, accounting for one hour 54 minutes on average per day between June and October this year.

• AVOD (ad-supported video on demand) and BVOD (broadcaster video on demand) saw double-digit growth in viewing time during the lockdown, 10%, and 16% respectively.

• Samsung TV Plus, Samsung’s AVOD service, saw a growth of 25% in viewing time between pre-and post-lockdown, equating to 37 extra minutes per monthly session time.

• Overall viewership increased again from October to November with 1.2 million viewing hours. This is the highest monthly viewership since the launch of TV Plus in Australia in November 2020.