Where Are The Audiences? 2020

Overview

The way New Zealanders consume media continues to change, with the global digital giants both fragmenting audiences and overtaking most local platforms.

The latest Where Are The Audiences? report produced by Glasshouse Consulting for NZ On Air compares daily media use across a range of platforms, providing a single source of objective media information. The 2020 report compares data with 2018, 2016 and 2014. Glasshouse Consulting surveyed over 1500 people aged over 15 for the research.

The survey asked respondents about their behaviour "yesterday". It has a margin of error of +/-2.5%.

This year's survey included two new questions - we have added online gaming in to media consumption, and we asked about trusted sources of news during COVID.

Key findings

• Total Linear TV audiences (Free-to-air and Pay TV) have continued to fall, but Free-to-air has remained stable.
• Linear TV still has the longest time spent watching at 137 mins a day, but that has declined from 156 mins two years ago. (Possibly influenced in part by a lack of live sport during the survey period.)
• Meanwhile time spent watching subscription video on demand (SVOD) has grown to 95 mins each day – the second most popular media in terms of time spent
• The most popular site, station or channel is now YouTube, pipping TVNZ 1.
• TVNZ 2 and Three have both declined while TVNZ On Demand continues to grow, now reaching one in five New Zealanders daily.
• The group that has moved fastest away from linear TV is Asian New Zealanders – just 28% consume linear television today (cf 62% in 2014)
• Most radio stations have declining daily reach and time spent listening to radio has dropped (RNZ National and Newstalk ZB were the only exceptions – possibly related to higher consumption of news due to COVID.)
• The rapid change in the way New Zealanders consume music continues with 44% streaming music each day.
• TVNZ news updates were the most widely used and trusted source of information during lockdown.
• Online gaming has 36% daily reach overall but 53% in the 15-24 age group (measured for the first time).

Download the full report and infographics below. There are also four Targeted Audiences reports available for Māori, Pasifika, 15-24 year olds, and lower socio-economic New Zealanders. These are at the bottom of this page.

With additional sampling and building on the data in the Where Are The Audiences? 2020 report, Te Hiringa Hauora / Health Promotion Agency commissioned four separate reports on specific target audiences - Māori, Pasifika, 15-24 yr olds, and lower socio-economic New Zealanders.

You can read all the reports below.