Australian teenagers have grown up with abundant choices in digital screen entertainment including social media, gaming and streaming video. However, the viewing habits of Australian teens are often overlooked in research. The most recent report from the Australian Communications and Media Authority into the digital lives of “younger Australians” does not include teens, with the lowest demographic aged 18–24.
The lack of teen audience studies in Australia is significant. Young children and teenagers are a distinctive and growing market, and a highly attractive audience for global streamers. Our new study investigated how, why and to what extent Australian teenagers aged 13 to 19 engage with long-form TV drama and movies in their daily lives, including Australian stories.
We found Australian teens overwhelmingly preferred to watch streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Stan and YouTube over free-to-air television. Their tastes are broad and include shows such as Heartstopper and The Summer I Turned Pretty . But teens aren’t watching much Aussie content.
Although many remember the Australian TV they watched as children with affection, teens now place a low priority on a screen story being Australian. When we asked survey participants why they like the streaming services they regularly watch, 33% of participants ranked access to Australian content last and 25% ranked it second last, out of six options. For teens, the most important streaming feature was .