Is the traditional TV set finally seeing tablets and laptops nibble at its dominance? Viewing on the big box decreased by 4.7% last year, whilst viewing on other screens grew by 17%, year on year.
Total average daily TV viewing in the UK during 2014 was also down by 4.5% – entirely because of lower TV set viewing. However, the average time people spent watching television is still high at more than 3 hours, 44 minutes each day, on average.
The figures, published to today by TV marketing body Thinkbox, reveal that, overall, there was a decline in total TV viewing of 10 minutes, 30 seconds a day compared to 2013.
The total is based on the BARB standard measurement for TV set viewing – which only includes in-home TV viewing on a TV set, live or playback, within seven days of broadcast – and figures supplied by the UK broadcasters to Thinkbox for TV viewing on other screens. This breaks down as 3 hours, 41 minutes of TV on a TV set (including seven-day playback) and 3 minutes, 30 seconds of TV via devices such as tablets, smartphones and laptops – most of which is on-demand viewing.
However, Thinkbox said that although viewing on TV sets has shown a decline, they continue to be the UK’s screen of choice by some distance – in 2014, 98.4% of all TV was watched on a TV set.
Analysis of BARB’s data indicates that 95% of the dip in TV set viewing is accounted for by the heaviest TV viewers – those who were watching over an average of four hours a day – watching less. This analysis shows that the number of viewers who watched over four hours a day in 2014 fell by 7.2% compared with 2013.
Other factors influencing the changes in TV viewing include the wider choice of on-demand content and an improving economy and increased employment, Thinkbox said.
The good news for advertisers is that almost 66% of TV set viewing in 2014 was on commercial TV channels, meaning that the average person watched 2 hours 25 minutes of commercial TV a day.
Commercial impacts during 2014 decreased by 3.6% compared with 2013, with the average viewer watching 45 ads a day – seven ads more a day than 10 years ago.
Astonishingly, the UK collectively watched an average of 2.65 billion ads a day in 2014.
