Post-Prelim work Thursday:

 Article #1- TheSpinoff 

Notes:

• Confronting new research shows just how fast traditional media lost young NZ.
• Over the last 10 years, we have seen a revolution in our media consumption habits, driven by the ubiquity of smartphones, the rise of social media, and the rollout of broadband. Despite the pleasure we take in complaining about their prices (which are still high enough to exclude some), this country has now had relatively cheap and fast and plentiful data, at home and away from it, for years. And it has transformed our behavior in alternately exciting and confronting ways.
• Netflix and YouTube have replaced linear TV for under 40s
• The survey conducted by NZ On Air asks its 1,420 respondents (found through phone and online, balanced for demographics and with a margin of error of 2.6%) which media they used the previous day. Just over half (56%) nominated linear television, a number which drops to around a third for those under 40. It’s worth remembering that under 40s represent over half of our population and one which (naturally) heralds the coming behavior patterns.
• Daily reach of media over time - 15-39-year-olds:

• The use of linear television has almost halved in just five years, a staggeringly fast drop. What they do instead is streaming. As the chart shows, online video – particularly YouTube – remains very strong. But it’s subscription video, or SVOD, which has risen most steeply, to functionally replace television as the core platform for this half of the population. This category is dominated by Netflix, which is now in a massive 64% of households – this is higher than Sky TV at its height, and not far off the number of households with a working television (76%).
• the decline of linear television is actually better understood as the decline of a single product: Sky TV’s black boxes, which were once in over half of our living rooms, and are now in less than a third. Those who still have them are more likely to be older than Pākehā, who still spend a significant amount of time watching, but there is no getting around that plummeting subscription rate.
• The big lie New Zealand told itself over decades was that we were one big melting pot – different people who all mucked in and largely experienced the same things and had the same values. Fast internet, social media, and smartphones blew that all up, along with a major burst of immigration. Now it’s clear that this country is made up of a large number of different communities which share some common traits but are also very different in important ways. That is abundantly clear in this survey, which shows that just as young and old Aotearoa diverges behaviourally, that can be even more pronounced when it comes to different ethnic or socioeconomic groups.
• As a young population, Pasifika are more likely to use connected mediums – streaming music and television, online gaming, podcasts (one of a relatively small number of mediums growing across the board) and less likely to use traditional media like linear television, radio, or newspapers. This is also true for Asian New Zealanders, who are in some respects more pronounced in their digital adoption, perhaps due to a large number being relatively recent arrivals and using the long tail of digital media to connect with language and culture that is unavailable on the big monolith platforms. (Māori are also strong on digital, but differ in important ways, with a greater than average propensity to consume radio and Sky TV, for example).
• Daily audience sizes over time - Radio, Music & Gaming

Article #2- Nz on Air

Notes:

• Online video narrowly reaches the most New Zealanders each day but SVOD and podcasts are the only media to have grown the size of their daily audiences in the past 12 months.
• New Zealanders continue to spend significantly more time watching TV (118 mins) than using any other media, but the gap is closing. SVOD comes next at 86 mins then radio at 74 mins.
• Traditional media still attracts the biggest audiences in some key time zones – for example, TV still reigns supreme from 6 - 8.30pm. From 8.30pm onwards SVOD and Online video are challenging TV for audience size.
• Free to air TV continues to hold a steady audience, with the fall in pay-TV subscriptions contributing to a lower overall TV figure.
• TVNZ 1 has the highest overall daily audience reach 41%.
• Netflix is the only main provider to grow its audience in the past 12 months now at 40% - up from 14% in 2016.
• TVNZ On Demand is the clear leader in local OD sites at 17% - a drop last year due to COVID boosting viewing but still a steady climb since 2014.
• Debuting strongly in this survey this year are Instagram (20% daily reach) and TikTok (11%) but among 15-24 yr olds Instagram reaches 56% daily and TikTok 39%.

There are three distinct generations of media use:

• 15-39s where digital media dominates – 82% use online video daily, 72% SVOD, and 68% music streaming. Radio is at 36% and TV at 35%.
• 40-59s who use a wider range of media – TV is still top at 61% but online video is at 58%, and SVOD and radio are equal on 48%.
• 60+ where traditional media dominates and digital is not growing – 83% use TV daily and 65% radio – online video 26% and SVOD 22%.

The most widely used and most trusted news source in the survey is TVNZ One News with NZ Herald, Stuff, Radio NZ, and Newshub all within a few points of each other vying for next most trusted. No more than 3% of New Zealanders trust social media most for their news. Spotify continues to dominate music consumption – 27% of New Zealanders use it daily, while the use of physical formats to listen to music has fallen to just 10%. The other key observation is that COVID-19 Level 1 and 2 conditions when the survey was conducted in 2020 had only a minor, temporary impact on audience behavior with the 2021 results showing trend lines continuing in the same direction as they had been prior to 2020.

Article #3- Stuff

Notes:

Subscription video-on-demand services and podcasts are the only media to have grown their daily audiences in the past year in Aotearoa, new research reveals. results from the NZ On Air survey Where Are The Audiences? showed the Covid-19 pandemic had only a “minor, temporary” impact on audience behavior, with most audience trends continuing in the same direction as they had been before 2020. Television is still the media format that Kiwis spent the most time with overall, at an average of 118 minutes per day. However, the gap is closing. Subscription video on demand (SVOD) services came in next at 86 minutes per day, then radio at 74 minutes. Television continues to attract the biggest audiences between the hours of 6pm to 8.30pm. From 8.30pm onwards, SVOD services and online videos are challenging television for audience sizes. Meanwhile, online videos narrowly reached the most New Zealanders – 59% watch an online video each day. That compares with 56% who watch television. Podcasts and SVOD services were the only media forms to have grown the size of their daily audiences in the last year. Netflix continued to have market dominance in the SVOD category, with a daily audience of 40% of New Zealanders, up from 14% in 2016. There was a fall in paid television subscriptions, but free-to-air television continued to hold a steady audience. This year NZ On Air also surveyed Instagram and TikTok use. Instagram had a reach of 20% of Kiwis each day, and TikTok 11%. This was increased further for the 15-24 age bracket, with Instagram reaching 56% of those Kiwis daily, and TikTok 39%. Among the 15-39 age bracket, digital media-dominated, with 82% of those Kiwis watching online videos each day. 62% used an SVOD service daily, and 68% used music streaming. Traditional media forms were not used as much for this age bracket, with radio used by 36% daily, and television 35% of Kiwis in the 40-59 age bracket used a combination of traditional and digital media, with television used by 61% of those people daily, and online video use close behind at 58%. SVOD service and radio were used by 48% of this group daily. In the 60+ age bracket, traditional media dominated and digital media forms were not growing. Eighty-three per cent of those Kiwis used television daily, and 65% used radio daily. Meanwhile, just 26% used online video, and 22% used an SVOD service. Spotify continues to dominate music consumption, with 27% of Kiwis aged 15+ using it daily. Harland said the research supported the authority’s funding not being tied to any particular media platform. “We can go to where the audiences are ... [that’s] not necessarily on traditional platforms,” he said.