Free to air TV reached 15.2m people last year according to the free-to-air TV body Freeview, capturing an 83% share of the prime time metropolitan audience.
Australians watched more than three hours of live TV every day, flat on last year, although viewers are recording more TV shows to watch later. Almost 9% of viewers time shifted programs and a quarter of connected households use catch-up services, said Freeview.
Time shifted viewing acounted for 5.4% of consolidated viewing, up from 4.9% in 2012.
Freeview general manager, Liz Ross, said: “Once again free to air has remained the television destination of choice for the overwhelming majority of Australians in 2013. Viewers are more engaged than ever with free to air TV.”
Ross added that Australian-made content is “at the forefront” of free to air programming with all the Top 50 rating shows produced locally, including sport, drama and reality TV.
Freeview is preparing to launch its Plus service this year – the HBBTV platform connecting TV with the internet to initially bring catch up services onto TV screens. It was announced in November and is expected in the first half of the year. Ross also hinted that Freeview channels may become available on other devices this year saying that the trend of accessing programs across multiple devices will continue to grow in 2014.
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