the ABC is seen as the most reliable and trustworthy news source, while Channel Nine is seen as the dodgiest by the 1028 Aussies who participated in this year’s TV Tonight Audience Inventory survey.
Now in its eighth year, the annual study is done by in the industry website TV Tonight.
However, it wasn’t all great news for the ABC, with respondents increasingly concerned about alleged political bias in its reporting. The biggest issue for those surveyed was “ABC, SBS independent of government influence”.
That said, when it came to the issue of “ABC improving political balance”, last year respondents said if was a very important issue, but this time around most said they had no opinion.
When it came to new ABC boss Michelle Guthrie’s mooted plans to merge the SBS with the ABC, respondents said they had no opinion on the subject.
Probably the biggest upswing from the 2015 results were viewers who watch some form of streaming TV, up from 41 per cent to 50 per cent.
The main findings of the 2016 survey were:
• Which of the following do you watch regularly? Free to air (FTA) commercial 80%, FTA public broadcaster 58%, streaming or subscription 50%, Pay TV 48%, community 2%.
• Some 89 per cent of respondents had a high definition television.
• The ABC was the most watched FTA channel with 74 per cent agreeing they regularly watched it. Then Network Ten 66%, Seven 56%, Nine 48%, SBS 43%.
• When it came to starting shows on time, again the ABC was seen as the most time efficient with 52 per cent agreeing. Nine came a distant last with just two per cent agreeing it started its programs on time.
• The tablet was voted the most frequently used second-screen device. Some 35 per cent said they used one alongside the TV. Desktop computers were next at 29%, Smartphone 25% and 11% of respondents said they didn’t use any secondary device.
• Half of all respondents agreed they watched TV with a secondary screen.
• Forty seven per cent of people were not offended by anything they saw on TV. However, 38 per cent were offended by violence and nine per cent by sexual content and six per cent by strong language.
Read the report’s full results here.
