The era of Kiwi families gathering around the TV set to watch a linear show is well and truly over – our viewing habits are a lot more diverse.
Kiwis’ love affair with global media platforms may have peaked, with new research indicating a slowdown and even a decrease in consumption among key age groups.
While the likes of YouTube, Netflix and Spotify continue to have a dominant role in our lives, there are encouraging signs for local media of their own audience reach and engagement, according to NZ on Air’s latest Where are the Audiences survey.
The survey, released today, is the biggest snapshot of consumption habits of daily media, especially screens, in New Zealand – although some of its findings will be hotly debated and contested within various sectors of the media industry, many of whom will be armed with their own in-depth research into their audiences.
After the relentless rise of global media platforms in recent years, that growth has slowed in the past 12 months, according to the survey, now into its 10th year.
It says global video-sharing platforms – we’re talking here mainly about YouTube – reach 64% of New Zealanders each day, up 1% on a year ago.
Local TV – either linear broadcast or on-demand – reaches 60% of New Zealanders, a slight drop.
But within those numbers, TVNZ and Warner Bros Discovery’s Three will be deeply encouraged by the rise of on-demand numbers in younger age groups.
Similarly, radio is holding steady, with a total reach of 46% – that includes an increase in broadcast radio and a slight drop in online radio.
“It’s somewhat heartening to look at the total TV and total radio figures (representing a substantial core of local platforms where local content can be found) as these are largely holding steady,” NZ on Air chief executive Cameron Harland told Media Insider.
“And the fast pace of growth of the global platforms has slowed, in some cases decreased.
“This doesn’t surprise us, as we have seen really solid audiences lately when viewing combined TV linear and on-demand figures for the same content. To us it doesn’t matter when or how the audience sat down to watch it – they watched it. It’s also worth noting that total TV delivers the biggest audience in the crucial 6pm-10.30pm timeslot, still.”
In the 15-39-year-old age group, the reach of global video-sharing platforms had declined from 86% to 81% – still dominant but a significant drop.
At the same time, total TV increased to a 45% reach for this age group, driven by a steady rise in viewership of on-demand content.
While the reach of global video-sharing platforms has dropped in the younger age group, that slack has been picked up by the 40-59-year-olds. The likes of YouTube now reach 63% of this age group – a decent rise in 12 months, and just behind the total TV reach (64%).
“One noticeable trend is that the mid-age-range surveyed (40-59) are starting to adopt some of the behaviours seen previously most strongly in the 15-39 age range,” said Harland.
“It will be interesting to see in future years if this ‘ageing up’ continues into the 60+ age range which to date has held fast to traditional platforms.”
When it comes to specific screen brands, TVNZ – in its various guises (TVNZ 1, TVNZ 2, Duke and TVNZ+) - has a 48% daily reach, edging out YouTube (47%), says the survey.
Netflix comes next with a daily reach of 38% (down from 42% a year ago) followed by Facebook (video) 36%, Spotify (35%), Sky (all channels and on-demand) 25% and Warner Bros Discovery (24%).
NZ on Air uses the research to help guide its funding decisions and strategy.
The survey of 1408 respondents – some 800 by phone and 600 via an online research panel – was conducted from April 10 to May 13.
“The study measured media consumed ‘yesterday’, for how long and which channels, stations and sites were used,” says the survey.
Harland says: “For NZ on Air what all of this means is our approach is the right one for these times – fund content with specific audiences in mind, on the platforms they use, and promote it to ensure they find it.
“While we do see fluctuations (across channels, stations and platforms) year-on-year, the real value in this research for NZ on Air is tracking audience behaviour and engagement over time.”
There are a number of of other significant findings and discussion points:
The research reveals the steady rise of podcasts.
“Podcast listening has grown consistently since it was first measured in 2018 (7%), now reaching 18% of New Zealanders each day (up from 15% in 2023), however time spent has stabilised this year,” says the survey.
Harland picks up on this “interesting” trend. “While we have funded podcasts for some time, it appears that New Zealanders, especially younger audiences, are increasingly consuming this type of content.”
The dominance of Newstalk ZB – which has been the number one commercial station in the regular GfK radio ratings for 16 years – is now reflected in this survey. For the first time in the survey’s 10-year history, it has overtaken RNZ.
ZB’s reach is 8%, RNZ is now 7%. “RNZ National increased its reach from 2018 to 2021, however has since shown a steady decline,” says the survey.
As to which news sources respondents used regularly, TVNZ, Stuff and NZ Herald were the three biggest outlets. Stuff has declined slightly over the past year and TVNZ has now joined it in the top position (46%), followed by the Herald (35%), Three News/Newshub (30%); RNZ (22%), The Spinoff (9%) and Newsroom (5%).
“TVNZ remains the most trusted source (22%) by a significant margin. Stuff and NZ Herald are the next most trusted, each at 11% (Stuff has declined from 13% while NZ Herald has remained the same),” says the report.
After that came Three News/Newshub (9%) and RNZ (8%).
The research says there has been “little change” in audiences watching online videos on New Zealand-based news websites over the past several years.
“Stuff (11%, a slight decline from 12% in 2024) and NZ Herald (10%) continue to be most popular and reach about one in 10 New Zealanders each day. TVNZ News has shown a slight year-on-year increase.”
Music streaming reaches 49% of all New Zealanders each day, while music on radio reaches 46%. “Almost the same amount of time is spent per day listening to streamed music (73 minutes) as radio (72 minutes),” says the survey.
The research is likely to be a hot topic of debate and discussion within the media industry – certainly many of the different industry groups and companies have their own research that will tell a more articulate, and possibly different, story.
For instance, Nielsen research shows Stuff and the NZ Herald are well out in front as the country’s leading news websites – each had a unique audience of more than 2 million in July.
Last week, GfK radio ratings were released showing Newstalk ZB was the leading commercial radio station – and that listenership of radio generally was rising.
The head of the Radio Broadcasters Association Alistair Jamison took a thinly veiled swipe at the upcoming NZ on Air research.
“NZ on Air will release their ‘Where are the Audiences’ data next week and I am sure this will generate debate on what is the real consumer media behaviour,” said Jamison. “With a sample of over 14,000, and active 36 weeks a year, I have no doubt that GfK represents the most robust audio data and is the best measure of NZ radio audiences. It continues to demonstrate that our audiences are stable, engaged and that radio presents a wide range of opportunity for all advertisers.”
NZ on Air said last week that the agency had “always been clear” that its survey would not exactly match other data sources.
The survey itself says: “The results in this study will not exactly match data from sources such as TV ratings, radio surveys, or online analytics as the methodologies are different. However, this study does provide an objective, single-source comparison across all media.”
NZ on Air head of communications and research Allanah Kalafatelis said the insights reinforced the agency’s strategy, “which emphasises the importance of ensuring content is created with specific audiences in mind, on the platforms they use, and promoted well to ensure they find it”.
“In spite of the tough times our local media sector is experiencing, there is still a solid core local audience consuming media on local TV and radio, although younger New Zealanders are more likely to be on global platforms. Our challenge is to serve all audiences with content that reflects New Zealand identity and culture – and that increasingly means being discoverable on a wide variety of platforms.”
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.
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