Key Features

PCs and tablets still claim the lion’s share of daily time spent, but mobile and other digital behaviors are spreading.

• Like many advanced economies with a comfortable standard of living, New Zealand posts high penetration of desktops and laptops, even as smartphones have come to rule the device landscape. In H1 2019, 94.3% of internet users ages 16 to 64 owned a smartphone, according to GlobalWebIndex, but PC ownership remained high at 84.0%. Almost half (48.6%) of those polled had a tablet as well. Feature phone penetration had dropped below 6%.
• Larger-screen devices accounted for substantially more media time, too. Taken together, activities on desktops, laptops and tablets consumed an average of 3 hours, 38 minutes (3:38) per day in H1 2019, compared with 2:32 spent on mobile phones.
• Live TV viewing is less widespread in New Zealand than in most comparable countries—73.4% of respondents said they had watched broadcast TV in the prior month. That’s partly because large numbers of internet users were watching broadcasters’ catch-up services (62.2%) or a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service such as Netflix (70.1%). In other words, SVOD usage is on track to close the gap with broadcast TV within the next year or so.
• In total, 85.5% of internet users had streamed some type of video content via digital platforms in the prior month. In the 16-to-34 age bracket, about 92% had done so. In fact, all forms of digital video consumption were appreciably more common among younger respondents and those who were most affluent.
• Despite this, time spent with broadcast TV is still well ahead in New Zealand, at an average of 1:53 per day, compared with 1:08 spent with online TV and streamed video content. The gap between digital and traditional time spent with audio is less pronounced. In H1 2019 respondents spent an average of 1:15 daily with broadcast radio, vs. 1:06 with streaming music. Time spent on social media was higher, at 1:47 daily. (GlobalWebIndex includes YouTube in its social category, and this tends to boost both reach and time spent for social media overall.)