Family live entertainment thrives in digital era as spend & ticket prices rise

Australia’s family live entertainment and children’s show sector continues to thrive despite competition from digital entertainment options, says new TEG Analytics research.

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.

The average spend is $204.51 (in CPI adjusted terms) up 1.8% over the past decade.

The average price per ticket for children’s shows of $50.63 (also in CPI adjusted terms) is up 8.2%.

The most popular show with Australian kids this year is Paw Patrol, the new live stage show based on the animated TV series.

In comparison, High School Musical – The Ice Tour was 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 said, “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 coupled families with children at home compared to 48% in 1976.

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 TV 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.

Sydney-based TEG is a leading ticketing, live entertainment and data analytics business in the Asia Pacific.

TEG includes Ticketek, TEG Live, TEG Dainty, TEG Analytics, TEG Insights, TEG Digital, Softix, Qudos Bank Arena, Eventopia, Life Like Touring, The Entertainment Store, Brickman Exhibitions and TEG Asia.