The average reach of linear TV in Australia has dropped to a three-year low of 5.1 million households with smart TVs and is a direct reflect of the preference viewers have for BVOD and streaming services, a new report claims.

Samba TV has released a report titled 'State of Viewership' for the first half of 2024, providing a comprehensive overview of the evolving media landscape in Australia. The report highlights significant trends in both linear TV and streaming sectors.

As well as the sliding average daily reach of linear TV in Australia, and a similar dip in total linear hours viewed, the report also suggested 91% of TV ad impressions reached only the top 50% of linear TV households, indicating a potential oversaturation issue that could lead to ad fatigue among heavy TV viewers.

Automotive ad impressions spiked by 53%, correlating with a record increase in car sales. Health-oriented brands also climbed the advertising leaderboard, driven by significant campaigns from companies like Nurofen and Lite n' Easy. But almost all advertising verticals saw a yearly increase, led by career services (+105) followed by travel (+17%).

The top linear and OTT advertisers by impressions in H2 2024 were McDonald's, Woolworths, Chemist Warehouse, Australian Government, Toyota, Harvey Norman, KFC, Cadbury, Hungry Jacks and Coles.

In addition, Samba's report found subscription OTT video viewership has risen to 14 million in 2024. Suspenseful content, particularly in the mystery and crime genres, has seen a surge in popularity, with drama continuing to lead as the top genre, representing almost two-thirds of the top shows at a 10% increase year-over-year. Comedies were notably absent from the top five genres, comprising just 18% of leading content.

According to the report, the majority of viewers are watching new shows in the first two weeks of their release, and an average of 73% of households complete a series in this time.

The report is based on findings from Samba's own automatic content recognition (ACR) technology, which is used on tens of thousands of opted-in smart TVs.