Kath Sroka, Director, Digital Commercial Strategy & Enablement, Nine
TV suffers from a perception issue. The ‘I don’t watch TV’ statement has become fashionably cool, but the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. Viewers who claim to be ‘raised on feeds’ or who don’t own a physical TV set are very often the same people captivated by the Australian Open on a smartphone or hooked by streaming Love Island Australia on a laptop.
Premium content remains our ultimate connector. People haven’t stopped watching; they have simply changed how they engage. Some recent leave and on-the-ground conversation has opened my eyes to content as a social currency.
“I don’t do reality TV”
In Thailand, I coincidentally stayed at a resort with one of Married at First Sight’s most successful couples. A few of my straight-up ‘global news only’ friends not only knew the couple but also recalled the 2026 promo spot and heard that a MAFS couple had appeared on the Golden Bachelor.
Sounds like some Closet Reality Buffs to me.
We don’t watch ‘regular TV channels’ aunty Kath
Over Christmas, holidaying with family, my 21-year-old niece saw me reading the novel The Housemaid. She immediately linked the film adaptation, starring Sydney Sweeney, to the American Apparel campaign and, oh yeah, Euphoria too, launching with a new series in April.
Meanwhile, my other niece was busy getting kudos from her parents for mastering the perfect scrambled eggs from TikTok. Not the same cred you can stir into a conversation about Naomi’s post-match interview about her jellyfish AO outfit. (or Arsenal FC results for the EPL fans)
My screenager nephews also ‘raised on feeds’ were plugged into the Big Bash Cricket and United Cup Tennis from the couch, just happy the content was live.
Then there’s the Platform Oblivious
A young tradie helping build our alfresco proudly shared he didn’t own a ‘TV set’. Yet he confessed to watching Big Brother and Love Island Australia on his laptop, content to couch-surf in friends’ living rooms while following the wash-up on socials.
People don’t ‘watch TV’? It might not be via an old-school set, but they’re still watching long-form premium content when they want it. Whether it’s live sport, entertainment, or news, premium content connects people with cultural moments across all devices.
The Power of Scale in a Fragmented Market
The appetite for premium video has never been higher. The challenge today isn’t a lack of audience, but the fragmentation of choice. At Nine, we are solving this by replacing complexity with scale.
Our premium content solution integrates 9Now, Stan Sport and HBO Max collectively into a single gateway. Through a dedicated sales team, Nine offers clear behavioural strategies to reach diverse BVOD and SVOD audiences, backed by a market-leading data proposition and ad products designed for seamless execution.
For brands, the magic is clear in the data. While Live and On-Demand can stand alone, they are a powerful duo for full-funnel outcomes. The ‘water cooler’ effect of live viewing drives massive awareness; in fact, Live content sees an Ad Recall of 52%. This is particularly potent in genres like Live Reality, where recall hits a staggering 67%.
Conversely, On-Demand is where receptive viewers turn into buyers. It leads the way in brand outcomes focused on action, with 51% of viewers showing high receptivity compared to 44% in Live. We see this translate directly to the bottom line, with On-Demand delivering a +7.4% lift in purchase intent.
Even more impressive is the conversion in specific genres: in Entertainment, 24% of On-Demand viewers made a purchase, compared to 11% for Live.
In 2026, the commitment to long-form premium content is simple: deliver these engaged audiences and the metrics that brands crave.
From the high-stakes action of the NRL to the comfort viewing of Seinfeld, Nine continues to capture the hearts of viewers of all types. You might not call it ‘TV’ anymore, but we’ve built the ecosystem that follows the audience wherever they are, and however they choose to engage.
Source: Kantar Nine Live and On-Demand Research, 2025. Study commissioned by Nine to evaluate ad recall and consumer receptivity across live and video-on-demand (VOD) platforms (Base: n=3375 for ad recall; n=1557 for attitude and action).