A new study into Australian viewing habits has found that when it comes to picking a Pay TV provider or SVOD, Aussie men are more likely to make the final decision than their female partners.
However, it’s movies and not sport that is the biggest influencer on the final decision.
The study by Roy Morgan Research found half of Australia’s married or de facto couples have at least one subscription or pay TV service in their home. In 50 per cent of these homes, the decisions about whether, when and which provider were made together.
The rest of the time, either hubby or the missus took control. In 30 percent of cases, the man decided; in 20 percent, the woman. For the sake of simplicity, this new study doesn’t include same-sex couples.
Who decides on Subscription/Pay TV services?
Regardless of who made the decision to sign up, films are the number one content of interest to both husbands and wives with subscription or Pay TV in the home.
Overall 60 per cent say they are ‘very’ or ‘quite’ interested in watching new release or older films—with interest a little higher among the women (62 per cent) than the men (57 per cent).
News and current affairs and documentaries come in equal second, each of interest to 52 per cent of couples. The level of interest is fairly even between the sexes, with women slightly more likely to be into watching news and current affairs (55 per cent), and men more inclined to documentaries (53 per cent). Similarly, science and nature series won’t engender too much disagreement: 42 per cent of men and 38 per cent of women are interested in watching.
But then there are the two categories where the sexes may well battle to control the remote. Some 56 per cent of husbands want to watch sport (compared with just 30 per cent of their partners), while 52 per cent of wives are into lifestyle programming (compared with 34 per cent of their partners).
Commenting on the study, Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said: “As Roy Morgan showed on International Women’s Day, 52 per cent of women now consider themselves the household’s main income earner, up from 39 percent a decade ago – even though almost three in four men still say they are. Clearly, there are many two-income households in which both earners regard their own contribution as central to the whole operation (or at least equally important).
“This changing dynamic has consequences for many businesses that sell household-level products. For home entertainment providers like Foxtel and Netflix, it’s vital to their marketing efforts to know exactly who in the home decides to purchase (or cancel) the subscription—and the subsequent viewership habits and preferences among the different household members,” Levine said.
