On-demand viewing rises in UK
The average viewer watched four hours and one minute of TV a day during January to June 2013, according new research from Thinkbox.
New TV viewing figures for the first half of 2013 show how people’s television habits are developing as on-demand TV viewing becomes a more established part of people’s lives.
Of the total viewing hours recorded per day for the first half of 2013, three hours 58 minutes a day of linear TV was viewed on a TV set – three minutes a day less than the same period last year.
Three minutes 30 seconds a day of viewing was done via devices such as tablets, smartphones and laptops – mostly on-demand.
In total, viewing on non-TV set devices via established services such as ITV Player, 4OD and BBC iPlayer, accounted for 1.5% of overall TV viewing during the first half of 2013. This is a slight increase on the full year figure for 2012, when it accounted for 1.2%.
Commercial TV accounted for 68% of linear viewing, up from 66% in 2012 – with 73% of commercial linear viewing among the 16-34 audience.
In the last ten years, commercial TV viewing has increased by 15%.
Timeshifted viewing
In the estimated 58% of households that own digital television recorders, 83.8 % of linear TV was watched live compared to 84.4% for the same period last year.
81% of all timeshifted viewing was watched within two days of recording, and 47% of timeshifted viewing was seen within 24 hours of it being recorded.
Figures from BARB suggest that the growth in the amount of TV that is recorded and played back is slowing down. Once all households have the ability to digitally record TV programmes, Thinkbox expects the average level of recorded and playback TV viewing to settle at around 15-20% of total linear viewing, as it has in those households that do currently own DTRs. However, on-demand TV will increase as a proportion of the time-shifted total.
Commercial TV impacts
The number of TV ads watched at normal speed during Jan-Jun 2013 were up 0.9% on the same period in 2012, and have grown by 12.3% over the last five years.
The average viewer watched 48 ads a day – five ads more a day than five years ago. Collectively, the UK watched an average of 2.8 billion ads a day in the first half of the year.
“We know that people watch live TV and on demand TV for different reasons. They co-exist and together are helping TV to grow as a medium,” said Lindsey Clay, Thinkbox’s managing director.
“People’s ongoing enthusiasm for TV, and their growing enthusiasm for embracing new ways to watch it, is great news for advertisers, who don’t always get the recognition they deserve for contributing to TV’s health and expansion.”