Online and on Demand Trends in Australian Online Video Use Much Change Has Already Occurred in the Ways We Expect to Consume Screen Stories
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Online and on demand Trends in Australian online video use MUCH CHANGE has already occurred in the ways we expect to consume screen stories. Australian audiences are ‘leaning in’ and taking charge. We haven’t yet dropped our old habits entirely – we are simply seeking more convenient ways to watch our preferred shows and movies. And we haven’t radically shifted the kinds of content we are seeking – online platforms just enable our personal interests to come to the fore as watching becomes less collective and concurrent than when we share the remote or the popcorn. Australian content continues to comprise a meaningful part of our screen diet, with most of us still turning to the broadcast schedule to access Australian screen stories. Without the central platform provided by broadcast television to inform our viewing choices, we will need to know more about alternatives to ensure we can continue to find local content into the future. If we see online services continuing to enhance the choice, convenience and quality viewing experiences they offer – and some much heralded game- changers are on the horizon – we can anticipate an increase in online viewing. So how do we fund quality content creation in this new landscape? What are the opportunities for Australian screen stories and the Australian screen production sector? The challenge now for industry is to find and adopt business models that adapt to the new ways we watch while creating a compelling enough offer, or clever enough platform, to monetise it. Meeting this challenge is vital if content creators are to continue financing and making stories that will capture our imaginations into the future. CONTENTS Observations and insights 2 Ways to watch 4 VOD services 4 The new screen diet 6 Awareness and use of VOD services 6 Other viewing habits of VOD viewers 8 What makes people watch VOD? 10 What holds them back? 10 Discovery – finding what to watch 11 The content – what’s watched where 12 The content diet of VOD viewers 12 What content on which service? 14 Overview of Australian content 17 Who’s watching? 18 Viewer profiles by platform 20 Profiles by legality of viewing 22 Viewing behaviour 24 Devices 24 Locations 25 © Screen Australia 2014 Companions 25 ISBN: 978-1-920998-30-1 But where’s the money? 26 Interest in paid models 26 The text in this report is released How much are we prepared to pay? 28 subject to a Creative Commons BY Attitudes to paying for Australian content 30 licence (Licence). This means, in summary, that you may reproduce, What if illegal viewing was no longer possible? 30 transmit and distribute the text, Methodology 32 provided that you do not do so for commercial purposes, and provided that you attribute the text as ABOUT THE REPORT extracted from Online and on demand – Trends in Australian online video use, To understand what people are watching online and how, Screen Australia Screen Australia, 2014. You must not commissioned Nielsen to facilitate a series of focus groups and survey alter, transform or build upon the text Australians aged 14+ who watch professionally produced content online. The in this publication. Your rights under research provides an evidence base around current behaviours, drivers and the Licence are in addition to any fair barriers to online viewing to help predict the likely shape and behaviour of the dealing rights which you have under online audience in the near term. the Copyright Act 1968 (Cwlth). Online and on demand: Trends in Australian online video use is Screen Australia’s For further terms of the Licence, third in a series of audience research reports exploring changing screen content please see http://creativecommons. consumption patterns, and their implications for audience engagement with org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. You are Australian screen content. Beyond the box office: understanding audiences not licensed to distribute any still in a multiscreen world, published in 2011, provided a benchmark to measure photographs or videos contained the changing size and shape of audiences for feature films across each release in this document without the prior platform. 2012’s What to watch? Audience motivation in a multiscreen world permission of Screen Australia. broadened the research focus to ‘screen stories’ – feature film, television drama and documentary - examining the motivations underpinning decisions to watch Front cover image: Anthony Calvert different types of content on different platforms. Online and on demand – Trends in Australian online video use 2014 | Screen Australia 1 Observations and insights Online viewing is for On-demand facilitates Local series shine 1 everyone 2 individual choice: you can 4 on catch-up television All types of people are watching watch solo or with others services content online – all ages, income levels, The reasons why viewers like VOD are clear Television series drive VOD viewing across males and females, in the cities, towns – they can watch at any time on any device all online platforms. The catch-up TV and rural areas. The introduction of and in any place of their choosing. Watching services have the strongest audience for catch-up television services made VOD movies and television shows was often Australian series, where they are neck-and- accessible to everyone with an internet considered a group activity, in part because neck with foreign series. Foreign series are connection – online viewing became just of only having one screen (cinema or strongest on all other VOD platforms but another way to watch your favourite shows television) to watch. With the multiplication Australian programs are not too far behind. when it suits you. of screens in households, we are seeing a growing trend for people to watch alone. The appetite for Australian content is Currently 50 per cent of Australian Almost all VOD viewers are watching VOD strong, with 96 per cent of VOD viewers internet users watch movies and television by themselves some of the time, with over watching it across various platforms and content online.* Although there’s lots half nominating solo viewing as the main around half are watching it online. The of talk about watching content online, it way they watch content. VOD enables the survey results reaffirm the role of the still only comprises a small proportion of individual to make their own viewing choices. broadcast television industry in bringing overall viewing. As a group, VOD viewers Even though this may mainly be a singular local content (including Australian films) to spend more time watching on traditional activity, we still want the option to watch Australian audiences both as programmed platforms: more hours spent watching with others. television and the broadcasters’ own catch- broadcast television than VOD, and more up services. Although audiences generally frequent cinema-going and DVD viewing Friends and family remain don’t want to pay much, more than half see than renting or buying content online. 3 the most potent content Australian content being of equal value to However, the people who regularly pay for discovery tool foreign content. their VOD content via transactional models With so much content available online, (online rental or download-to-own) tend it can be overwhelming to find things to There is an opportunity for distributors to be screen-hungry across all platforms, watch. Viewers continue to rely on familiar and producers to connect with existing including cinema and broadcast television. trusted sources even with recommendation audiences for Australian content on VOD engines often subtly pushing content platforms. Australian broadcasters and their For content creators, this means you choices. First and foremost among these programming decisions will, however, remain can find audiences for your content online trusted sources is talking to friends and very important for access to Australian in addition to the traditional distribution family, followed closely by traditional content for the foreseeable future. platforms – it’s another avenue to advertising, program guides and then social reach them. media recommendations from friends and "The appetite for Australian family. The continuing popularity of the content is strong, with 96 more traditional discovery tools highlights * This data comes from Nielsen’s Australian Connected why the marketing of content ahead of its per cent of VOD viewers Consumer 2014 report, which describes 50 per cent of the first release (whether in theatres or on online audience as watching internet TV (where the 'online watching it on various audience' is defined as the 81 per cent of Australians over television) is vital to ensure viewers find out 16 who use the internet at least once a month). about new things to watch. platforms..." Niche content can find bigger audiences online 5 Foreign drama series drive online popular genres overall, their popularity was documentaries in particular having a strong viewing, and Hollywood dominates closer to that of the top genres on VOD and DVD showing relative to other genres. movie choices. However, this doesn’t mean than was the case for cinema and television. audiences aren’t also watching other types of As online shelf space is ‘unlimited’, there is content. Movie tastes are more diverse on VOD Specific types of factual content also find plenty of room for niche content that may and on other ‘small screens’ than at the cinema. audiences online. Although they account for otherwise be in short supply on mainstream VOD, like DVD, has a role in enabling niche a low proportion overall, those who watch platforms. There is potential to tap into content to reach audiences: science fiction documentaries on VOD services are tending specialised audience demand, target key and horror both ‘over-indexed’ on VOD and to choose different genres than on other demographics and use communities of interest DVD.