SYDNEY: The majority of Australians now spend more time online than offline, as their consumption of digital entertainment content continues to increase, according to new data from Nielsen.

Every month, 16.8m Australians watch videos and movies, 13.1m listen to music and 14.1m play games. Mobile content consumption and time spent engaged is soaring: around 93% of smartphone users and 97% of tablet users consume entertainment content on their devices.

“The number of people connecting with entertainment content has not changed radically in the last 12 months,” said Monique Perry, Head of Media Industry Group for Nielsen, at the Mumbrella Entertainment Marketing Summit in Sydney.

“What has changed, and will continue to change, is the time spent engaging with the content. It’s up 24% from last year.” (For more details, read WARC’s report: Digital media habits of Australian entertainment consumers.)

Video and streaming are the most popular activities for consumers: Nielsen’s data showed that 14.8m Australians consume YouTube content every month, taking in an average of 20 hours and 44 minutes per person.

For streaming, Netflix triumphs with 2.7m visitors but the streaming platforms of traditional TV channels are also benefiting from digitization: ABC iview, 9Now, and Foxtel Go all see more than 1m website visitors each in a month.

Nielsen research shows millennials are also the most prolific dual screeners, with 76% dual screening at least once a week, and 31% every day. Gen X are also fans of multitasking when it comes to viewing, with 61% doing so at least once a week.

For an example of dual screening in action, Perry cited Eurovision which was the top program on Nielsen’s social content ratings in 2017.

“A staggering 96,000 people took to their second screen in order to engage and take part in the live experience,” she reported.

Of those 96,000, 64% of them were using their smartphone, 64% were female, and 63% were over the age of 35.

Sourced from WARC