Are Australians Dropping Streaming for Broadcast TV?

TV Ratings News Articles
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Australians are currently facing a significant cost-of-living crisis; just watch any TV news bulletin. Trouble is, to many viewers, they will rarely see broadcast TV news with their media consumption increasingly confined to paid streaming services. Many homes no longer even have access to a TV antenna.

Despite this trend, an intriguing pattern has emerged in the latest television ratings data, as commissioned by Free-to-Air (FTA) broadcasters. Viewing numbers are up for many programs and for most networks. The new ratings system that now incorporates online viewing through Broadcaster Video on Demand (BVOD) is showing remarkable year-on-year growth for key franchises.

The Nine Network’s Married At First Sight has surged and is now approaching a remarkable one million BVOD viewers per episode across 7 days of live and catch-up viewing. This is in addition to the over two million viewers who continue to watch via traditional broadcast methods or personal video recorders (PVRs).

Last Wednesday’s episode alone saw a 24% increase compared to the previous year, with BVOD viewing on Nine’s 9Now platform increasing by an impressive 49%.

Other networks are also reporting improved ratings. Seven’s Australian Idol achieved its highest launch episode ever for the franchise on the network, up 30% from 2024. Meanwhile, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! on Network 10 launched with a 12% increase from the previous year, marking its most successful debut since 2022.

News programming has also benefited from the rise in BVOD consumption with commercial news BVOD numbers increasing by +60% compared to last year.

Such growth is unusual, as FTA viewing has traditionally experienced gradual declines each year. One possible explanation is that households are reconsidering the number of paid streaming services they subscribe to - such as Netflix and Disney+ as well as Pay TV provider Foxtel - due to financial constraints.

FTA broadcasters are making strategic efforts to strengthen their presence in the online streaming universe that many viewers prefer, offering a compelling and cost-free alternative.

For instance, Seven recently provided its first free streaming of cricket on 7Plus over the summer and remains the exclusive platform for the Sri Lankan cricket tour.

Similarly, Nine leveraged its 9Now platform to enhance the viewing experience of the recent Australian Open, ensuring comprehensive coverage of the tournament.

Networks are also experimenting with new digital-first strategies. Seven has introduced a “7Plus First” initiative, making select programs available on 7Plus ahead of their regular broadcast television release.

Nine’s approach includes offering Love Island UK exclusively on 9Now and has recently launched multiple fast channels featuring BBC content.

Network 10 has expanded its 10Play platform with exclusive reality programming such as The Traitors US and The Traitors UK, alongside a wide selection of U.S. soap operas.

The ABC has also embraced this shift by releasing entire seasons of popular shows, such as The Newsreader, on iView the day they premiere, mirroring the binge-watching model of paid streaming platforms.

As economic pressures continue to influence consumer choices, this evolving landscape suggests that FTA broadcasters may be positioned to challenge international streaming giants for a bit longer.

I had a lot of thoughts about this year’s ratings trends and thought it easiest to summarise them in one place with this article. Feel free to provide thoughts and feedback.

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Well done piece :clap: Pretty much echo a lot of that!

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I did notice 7Plus and 9Now’s summer-to-date shares in particular and how strong and competitive both were, notably Seven’s. Well up YoY especially VOD apparently, 7Plus obviously have invested heavily in their back library.

There was a local report recently too saying how a lot of viewers have been turning to old, legacy titles, rather than engaging with just first runs. Which I thought was interesting.

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A great piece and very interesting to read. A couple of things that I think are also having an influence:

-The BVOD services (9Now/7Plus etc) are a far better product than they were a few years ago. They all have decent sized content libraries and have now (with the new AFL and cricket rights deals) reached a stage of having full parity in terms of content available compared to antenna-based over-the-air TV.

-Corporate greed is fast killing the streaming ‘golden goose’. Streaming originally was so successful because services like Netflix provided vast libraries of content at a very affordable price, especially when up against something like Foxtel. These days, that same content is now fragmented across so many streaming services (all of which are raising prices on a routine basis)- by the time you start paying for multiple subscriptions it adds up pretty quickly. With the cost of living situation so high it’s no surprise to me that people are dropping a lot of their subscriptions or scaling back on what level of subscription they have. Streaming has morphed from the affordable, convenient alternative to pay TV into something rather complex, convoluted and just as expensive.

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some are better than FTA with the streaming channels they offer exclusively online. Ive taken to putting the 7 plus blue light channel on my second screen whilst playing games like factorio on the main screen. it provides an alternate source of entertainment whilst waiitng for things to happen in game

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But did the number of streaming subscriptions drop by the same amount? Likely no. It’s just FTA networks growing their streaming numbers and investing in their streaming products after a decade of mismanagement, ignorance and disrespect to the audience. Anything using data or research from a lobby or interest group should also dismissed out of hand.

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Thank you for sharing. Over the past week you’ve had me pondering this one. The whole question of ‘why?’ Why is broadcast TV making a comeback?

Who would’ve thought?

Have people binge-watched all their old favorite shows and movies from the past up to a point now where the only programming they watch is new stuff? Is that part of the reason why streaming has reached a plateau? It’s a bit like when video stores came along - it wasn’t just the new releases that we watched initially, it was all the old stuff as well. But that can only last for a time.

Broadcast TV is doing some great new content these days. A case in point, I even found myself watching Ludwig this week. And I’m someone who never watches normal TV (except for sport that’s not on Kayo).

There was a time when you could just graze all night on YouTube. But those days are gone. The novelty has worn off. For couch potatoes, flicking through the channels on broadcast TV is much more satisfying than trying to find something via the Netflix home menu. It’s the pull, rather than the push. Grazing away passively it’s actually easier to just ‘chill’, and you might even get that moment of serendipity without even trying, and without needing to pay for it. Broadcast TV is good value for money. We don’t even have a licence fee.

But as for streaming services, why are people dropping them?

Less choice, more ads.

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