89% of children’s TV viewing is live

The majority of children’s TV viewing is live programming, according to new research from TV Licensing.

The TeleScope 2014 report reveals that 89% of children watch TV as it is broadcast, spending an average of two hours 23 minutes a day watching television – an hour and a half less than the national average.

The report – which examines children’s viewing habits – found that despite almost half of children aged five to 15 using PCs and tablets to watch TV, 98% spend time sitting in front of the traditional living room TV set.

As tablet ownership increases among children, TV viewing location is also changing. In 2013, the use of tablets at home tripled to 42% from 14% in 2012, while those that had a TV in their bedroom dropped from 59% to 52%.

Pipa Doubtfire, head of revenue management, BBC TV Licensing, said: “Children’s TV – as well as wider family entertainment programming – continues to play a central role in households.

“It was fascinating to see despite children having more devices and more ways in which to consume their favourite shows, the traditional TV set and live viewing are still the overwhelmingly the most favoured methods.”