Just wanted to take a moment to discuss a small little phenomenon that is sweeping the nation – that phenomenon is called “Bluey”. Generally speaking, there are two types of Australians – those that have seen and love Bluey and those that are yet to see and love it.
For those that fall into the latter, Bluey is Australian’s answer to Peppa Pig and The Simpsons, it is a 7-minute cartoon that follows a six-year-old cattle dog named Bluey who lives with her dad Bandit, mum Chilli and four-year-old sister, Bingo.
Launching October 2018, the program has built a loyal audience and had a massive last few months. In May 2019, ABC renewed Bluey for a second season. In June 2019 BBC Studios announced a partnership which will see Bluey telecast globally on Disney Junior and Disney+. In July 2019, the program won a Logie for Most Outstanding Children’s Program and just recently the program clicked over 100 million plays on iviews.
Something that probably went unnoticed was that a few weeks ago on Friday 26th July, Bluey averaged 440,822 national metro viewers – making it the highest rating Non-Sports event on ANY of the secondary channels since January 2015.
To put that 440,822 metro audience into further perspective it was the 11th highest rating program for that day beating programs like The Living Room, Gardening Australia, 10 News and The Project.
So, who is watching Bluey? Statistically speaking on Metro TV, 67% of the audience are People 0-17 while the other 33% are obviously Adults. Interestingly within the People 0-17 age group, 99.1% of them are aged 0-12, clearly teenagers are too cool for Bluey. Within all adults, 89% of the audience are aged 25-54. Bluey's core audiences are Grocery Buyers with Children 0-2 and Children 0-12.
My hope is that this little dog can provide the content makers of Australia that spark to make them believe in their own 'original' ideas instead of just going with the 'same old' shock value reality TV formats. Let's not forget that the surprise hit of 2019 was a show simply about 'people building stuff with Lego' - Like Bluey, LEGO Masters is quality entertainment for the whole family.
Households with children account for around a third of all Australian households, but they (we) are screaming for more family orientated content on TV – something to pry them away from their devices and individual screens bringing them back sharing content as a family unit. Despite just being a 7-minute-long comedy, I really wish that Bluey doesn’t become a one hit wonder and that its wholesome and refreshing nature lays the blueyprint (see what I did there) for future Australian content.
Please feel free to contact me to discuss any of the above in detail or perhaps discuss any data and insights query you or your business may have - lory.vecchio@insightoutdata.com.au / 0425 807 860.