NZ On Air’s regular Where Are The Audiences report had more attention than usual in 2024. Now the dust has settled, media insights specialist Amanda Wisniewski looks at the key trends to keep an eye on in the coming year.
Reports of the TV industry’s death are greatly exaggerated – and they have been for years, laughs Amanda Wisniewski.
The researcher and insights expert should know: she designed and conducted the research, on behalf of Glasshouse Consulting, for the 2024 iteration of Where Are The Audiences (WATA) – New Zealand On Air’s report into the nation’s video consumption.
This is the seventh time the work has been carried out in a decade, so it offers clear insight into Kiwi viewing habits.
The graphs have been showing a steady decline in linear TV consumption since the first report was released in 2014. That’s often been interpreted as TV being on the same trajectory as the dinosaurs – but is TV dead?
“No,” says Wisniewski, in a word. “It’s becoming a bit of a joke that TV’s dead for some years now, but it isn’t dead.”
While people might not all be tuning in at the same time, they remain keen viewers.
“Linear TV is slowly declining. But that’s just a type, a way of watching TV. It’s a platform. And if the content is there, audiences will come. So when there is good content, they will go to whatever delivery platform or whatever provider that’s on.”
Steady now
The overall story of WATA in 2024 was one of settling down, after Covid lockdowns saw significant chunks of the older generation finally join younger digital natives online. On-demand video subscription use soared in 2020, peaking in 2021, but has held steady-ish for the past two years.
“It feels like the 60+ group has very much plateaued – reached their limit – while the 40 to 59s are still moving, trying different platforms. But for the 40 to 59s, TV is still the dominant media for now,” says Wisniewski.
While Netflix remains the most-used subscriber video on demand (SVOD) platform – achieving more than double the reach of nearest rival Disney Plus – its popularity dropped in 2024. Netflix reached 38% of viewers daily, down from 42% the year before – its crackdown on password sharing in mid-2023 “may well have been one factor”, according to Wisniewski.
“I think the other thing that’s affected some of the streaming platforms, including some local platforms, was the writers’ strike. So there was perhaps less content – you hear that anecdotally.
“And the other factor I’m thinking is the cost of living. We’re not surveying for this, but maybe people are having to cut back on one or two streaming platforms. Certainly Netflix had a reasonably significant decline.”
Meanwhile, decreases or stable figures for other providers, and a modest lift for Amazon Prime, saw the overall SVOD dial tick downwards only slightly to 56%.
Hard to reach?
Though the headline figures didn’t change much, the interesting SVOD numbers were among so-called ‘hard to reach’ groups. As might be expected, younger people are keenest, with 67% of 15 to 39-year-olds watching a subscriber video service video daily.
But Māori and Pasifika audiences are also embracing SVOD more enthusiastically than the general populace – at 60% and 62% respectively.
Interest in NZ broadcast video on demand was more marked among these populations, with a reported daily reach of 44% among Māori and 38% for Pasifika, compared to 35% overall.
This tracks with geographical differences observed, says Wisniewski – Māori and Pasifika audiences skew younger and have a high concentration in Auckland.
“The data would suggest the behaviour of those audiences is a little bit different to average. Māori are consuming digital highly as well,” she says.
The higher daily reach of SVOD among Māori and Pasifika tracks with the figures for younger people – 15 to 24-year-olds reported 69% daily consumption compared to the overall 56% – but, in general, these Gen Zers embraced NZ BVOD less warmly at just 23%.
Meanwhile, daily figures for Asian SVOD (58%) are comparable to the overall percentage, but interest in NZ BVOD was significantly lower – at 23%.
“Pacific and Asian audiences are a little bit less likely to spend as much time with local providers, whether it be broadcast, television providers or radio. So a challenge for local is with those growing populations,” says Wisniewski.
Total TV
New for the 2024 report was how TV audiences were reported measured. Instead of thinking about only showing how many people were watching ‘live’– the traditional measure of linear TV – Wisniewski changed the approach this year to encompass those watching broadcasts on catch-up or on demand, for example.
“I took a slightly different approach in terms of television,” she says. “Earlier reports showed were just looking at linear television and referred to calling that as total TV. Then there was on demand TV, which is now often referred to as broadcaster video on demand.”
Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not how people think about watching television. And because of the way our devices work, what used to count as ‘streaming’ has become a little murky, says Wisniewski.
“The way people are watching TV now is all merged – they might be watching catch-up on the connected TV. They might be watching live TV on an app.”
It might not have been the motivation, but this approach does make the ‘Total TV’ numbers look better (or at least less grim) for broadcasters.
“It was more positive for the local broadcasters and local media,” agrees Wisniewski. “Linear TV is declining, but total TV is stable and the decline has slowed for sure.”
Eyes peeled for 2025
Aotearoa’s media scene has had a torrid year, with much of the upheaval coming after the survey fieldwork was conducted in April and May. WATA’s snapshot was taken just as the demise of Newshub was announced and before it was replaced by ThreeNews.
Then there was the axing of TVNZ’s Fair Go and Sunday programmes, as well as further cuts to Breakfast and Seven Sharp roles – not to mention the proposed demise of TVNZ’s news website – so there is much that hadn’t happened by the time the data was captured.
But that will only make next year’s report even more fascinating, says Wisniewski.
Stay tuned.
This was first published in the December-Janaury 2024/2025 NZ Marketing Magazine issue. Subscribe here.
