Family live entertainment continues to thrive in digital age

Presentations of family live entertainment and children’s shows in Australia continues to thrive despite the rise of digital entertainment options, new TEG Analytics research has found.

Over the past year, the average price per ticket for children’s shows of $50.63 (in CPI-adjusted terms) is up 8.2%, while the average spend is $204.51, up 1.8% over the past decade.

With more variety on offer than ever in family and children’s entertainment today, staples such as Disney on Ice and The Wiggles remain in the top three most popular children’s shows in 2018, just as they were in 2008.

Capturing the hearts and minds of youngsters across the country in 2018 is Paw Patrol, the new live stage show based on the animated TV series, whereas High School Musical – The Ice Tour was all the rage in 2008.

The findings come from TEG Analytics research using the Genome Live™ customer attribute analyser that has mapped the entertainment preferences of more than 14 million Australians in a data science project of significant scale and insight.

TEG’s General Manager of Analytics and Insights Andrew Reid advises “competition for the family dollar is intense and the statistics show that live events fulfil a vital role, with 73% of parents with children under 18 considering it important for their children to attend live entertainment events.

“And live event attendance isn’t limited to just family entertainment shows with sport being the top attended events by families with kids under 18 at home.”

The family demographic changes over the past decade are reflected in the profile of live entertainment audiences. Just 37% of Australian households today are couple families with children at home compared to 48% in 1976 and there has been a corresponding decline in family entertainment purchasers as a proportion of all live entertainment ticket purchasers from 9% in 2008 to 6% in 2018. 

Australian families still demonstrate significant spending power and over-index on home-based leisure and activities, which is also reflected in their spending patterns

• 1.6 times more likely to buy takeaway food
• 1.5 times more likely to be entertaining at home
• 1.2 times more likely to own the property they live in (even if they are still paying it off)

These spending trends occur in the context of demands on the family budget, with 82% of families still paying off their home. 

Compared to the overall population, they are:
• 7.6 times more likely to buy tickets to children’s shows
• 1.5 times more likely to buy tickets to circus shows
• 1.2 times more likely to buy tickets to sports events

Watching television is the top leisure activity among families and they over-index against the total population across all viewing platforms including free-to-air TV, catch-up TV, subscription TV and online streaming. In fact, families are 1.3 times more likely to use online streaming.

Images: Disney on Ice (top) and The Wiggles (below) remain in the top three most popular children’s shows in 2018.