Aussie TV viewers waste 22 days a year channel surfing

People can now spend up to 1.7 hours of their days off, channel surfing or scrolling aimlessly.

Claire Rosel and son Clancy compare new data on Aussie TV viewing habits which reveals just how much time we waste scrolling. Picture: Brendan Beckett

NEW data on Aussie TV viewing habits reveals just how much time we now waste simply looking for content to watch.

An online survey of 1000 Australians by streaming aggregator Hubbl has shown that people can now spend up to 1.7 hours of their days off, channel surfing or scrolling aimlessly on streaming and subscription services.

That’s about three times as long as people say they typically devote to having sex or working out. They also told the researchers they spend almost half as long trying to find shows to watch than they do actually watching them.

Claire Rosel and son Clancy 10, fight over a TV remote. Picture: Brendan Beckett

The same survey - which is representative of the wider population - also revealed that we spend a total of 60.5 days a year in front of a screen browsing for and watching content.The hours spent scrolling probably stems from the galaxy of streaming services, free-to-air and subscription TV options now at our fingertips. But with that also comes the paralysis of indecision.

With so many free-to-air and subscription TV options, we’ve all become incredibly indecisive about what to watch. Picture: Supplied

The data comes ahead of the launch early next year of Hubbl - a new entertainment system designed to simplify streaming by curating all the options in one place.

It will bring together paid and free streaming entertainment into an unrivaled user interface so there is no need to go in and out of apps to discover content.

Hubbl executive director Dani Simpson said: “What’s fascinating is that we’re currently wasting just over 22 days per year searching for what’s next,” she said.

“That’s a lot of time spent hopping in and out of different apps, trying to figure out where a specific show is streaming or a must-watch sports documentary.”

Melbourne University Culture and Communication professor John Sinclair said: “Even back in the multi-channel cable era, Bruce Springsteen famously complained there were ’57 Channels (And Nothing On)’.

“Now with streaming services, international and Australian research finds that viewers spend up to 60 per cent of their screen time browsing and searching for shows they really want to watch.”

Today’s platforms certainly offer a wider variety of content for audiences in different demographics, and in a range of genres than the old days of broadcast TV.

“However, unlike broadcast television, streaming services are able to cut through the mass of content, with algorithms selecting likely personalised choices, based on a viewer’s past preferences,” Prof Sinclair said.

“But evidently, algorithms don’t know us as well as ‘they’ think they do.”

Prof Sinclair adds that quantity doesn’t always mean quality.

“Some series do stand out from the pack, but shows of the calibre of Succession for example, are few and far between,” he says.

Claire Rosel and son Clancy. Picture: Brendan Beckett

Busy mother-of-three Claire Rosel’s algorithm certainly isn’t helping her find anything to watch. Like so many, she looks forward to that blissful window of time where she can zone out on the latest TV series or film, only to end up frustrated by her search.

Ms Rosel isn’t the only one. A recent study by global accounting firm Accenture 2 found soaring levels of streaming frustration and fatigue among Australians.

That study revealed that 92 per cent of Australian consumers (85 per cent globally) said that they would be interested in a single platform that can provide all the services they want on a single platform and 55 per cent (41 per cent globally) said it’s something they would pay for.

“After a big day at work and dinner and homework and patting the dog, my focus at the end of the day is that 30 minutes when I jump into bed and decide whether I am going to read a book or watch telly,” Ms Rosel explains.

“Because, by then I’ve only got 30 minutes left in my concentration bank.”

Instead, what often happens is Ms Rosel searches her various streaming platforms for something to watch until she gets sidetracked by social media or a work email.

“Five times out of seven I will end up not watching anything because I have so many distractions or I’ll take so long scrolling that I lose the will to live or pick up a book,” she laughed.