Australians tune in to Google Chromecast as their digital TV service of choice

New Roy Morgan data shows that Google Chromecast is Australia’s most popular digital television service, with 12.1% owning the service. Uptake has more than doubled over the past three years.

The proportion of Australians who own digital television services has shown significant growth across all brands in the past three years. As of June 2019, 12.1% of Australians aged 14 and over owned a Google Chromecast. This was followed by Apple TV (9.4%), Foxtel Now box (7.7%), Telstra TV (6.7%) and other digital television services (4.5%).

The findings come from the comprehensive Roy Morgan Single Source survey, gathered via in-depth face-to-face interviews with over 50,000 Australians each year in their homes.

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says, “Gone are the days when consumers were limited to programs dished up by a small number of commercial and public television channels. Nowadays, households enjoy a large amount of choice in their viewing. Our data also reveals that more Amazon Prime Video, Kayo Sports, Netflix, Stan and YouTube Premium customers have a Google Chromecast service than any other digital TV device, which is consistent with many Chromecast customers being Technology Early Adopters.”

Early tech adopters embrace Google Chromecast

Roy Morgan’s Technology Adoption Segments split Australians into six segments based on their interest and use of technology. Those with the highest interest are ‘Technology Early Adopters’, followed by ‘Professional Technology Mainstream’, ‘Digital Life’, ‘Older Tech Explorers’, ‘Technology Traditionalists’ and ‘Technophobes’.

Technology Early Adopters (17% of Australians): Always first to purchase and use new technologies, these people are well educated with high incomes and risk-taking tendencies — 23% of Technology Early Adopters use Google Chromecast.

Professional Technology Mainstream (18% of Australians): Ambitious individuals who adopt technology fairly early for career and time-saving purposes.

Digital Life (14% of Australians): Typically students and young part-time workers, fast to adapt to social media styles of technology.

Older Tech Explorers (9% of Australians): Passionate about new tech but cautious about spending money on it.

Technology Traditionalists (24% of Australians): Usually aged 45+, these individuals are wary of change and only adopt new technology once it’s become mainstream.

Technophobes (18% of Australians): The oldest segment, technophobes aren’t so much scared of new technology as uninterested, preferring more traditional pursuits (TV, gardening, reading).

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source, Jan. 2019-Jun. 2019, n = 559. Base: Australians aged 14+ using Google Chromecast.

Google Chromecast experienced the largest percentage increase over the past three years (+6.8%), followed by Telstra TV (+4.9%), Apple TV (+0.8%) and Foxtel Now box (+0.7% since July 2018). Michele Levine says, “Given recent strong industry growth and the fact that digital services are still in their infancy, we can expect the proportion of Australians using Chromecast and other similar services to continue to increase rapidly in future years.” 

 Digital television service ownership among Australians

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, January 2016 – June 2019, average six-month rolling period n = 7,341. Base: Australians aged 14+.

Smart TVs, which allow direct access to digital services including the Internet, are also increasingly found in Australian homes with penetration approaching 36%, up more than 13% from three years ago.

View the Google Chromecast Owner Profile.

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