BARB Lifts Lid On Sky+ Time-Shift Stats

New figures released by audience measurement body BARB show Sky+ viewers time-shifting almost 14% of all their viewing, while a small proportion of viewers use the function on more than 50% of their viewing.

The new data covers the eight-week period from 6 March to 30 April, and includes programmes recorded and viewed within seven days, and instances of pausing and rewinding or fast-forwarding live TV.

BARB shows time-shifted viewing accounting for 13.8% of all viewing by individuals in Sky+ homes, with approximately 40% time-shifted viewing taking place on the same day as the original broadcast. BARB also notes that time-shifting takes place more frequently during peak-time.

According to the data, those aged 35-54 are more likely to time-shift TV content, 15.7% of their viewing taking place out of the linear broadcast stream. Those aged 16-34 were the second highest users of the technology, with 14.8% of their viewing conducted on a time-shift basis.

Elsewhere, the over 55s time-shift 11% of their viewing on average, while children’s viewing is made up of 9.6% time-shifted content.

BARB states that, although there is little variation in the use of Sky+ across different demographic groups, use of Sky+ across individual viewers varies widely.

During the sample period, 8% of viewers were recorded using their PVRs to time-shift 50% or more of all television viewing. Furthermore, 28% of Sky+ households time-shift at least one fifth of all viewing.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk Sky: 08702 40 40 40 www.sky.com