Ofcom: the living room is now a digital media hub
Huge growth in take-up of smartphones and tablets is creating a nation of ‘media multi-taskers’, Ofcom research reveals, transforming the traditional living room into a digital media hub.
Ofcom’s Communications Market Report 2013 reveals that people are still coming together to watch TV in the living room – 91% of UK adults view TV on the main set each week, up from 88% in 2002 – however, an increasing array of digital media is now being used to stream videos and second screen, which is having a growing impact on the way that we watch TV.
The report found that 53% of UK adults media multi-task while watching TV on a weekly basis, and a quarter are regularly ‘media meshing’ – doing something else but related to what they’re watching on TV.
While the average household owns at least three types of connected device, the TV set in the living room retains its importance – 41% of households had just one TV in 2012, compared with 35% in 2002.
Live TV accounted for 90% of all viewing in 2012, with the average viewer watching just over four hours of TV a day – 15 minutes more than in 2008.
James Thickett, Ofcom’s director of research, said: “Our research shows that increasingly families are gathering in the living room to watch TV just as they were in the 1950s – but now delivered on bigger, wider and more sophisticated sets.
“Unlike the 1950s family, however, they are also doing their own thing. They are tweeting about a TV show, surfing the net or watching different content altogether on a tablet.
“Just a few years ago, we would be talking about last night’s TV at work or at school. Now, we’re having those conversations live while watching TV – using social media, text and instant messaging.”
The rising use of tablets
Household take-up of tablets has more than doubled over the past year, rising from 11% in 2012 to 24% in 2013. Two-thirds of users say they use this device on a daily basis and 95% use it at least once a week. Weekly users say they spend an hour and 45 minutes each day using their tablet.
The growth in ownership is undoubtedly driving the rise of second screening, and, according to Ofcom, ‘enticing’ people to the main TV room. 56% of tablet owners use their device for viewing audiovisual content and half of these do so while in the living room. 56% have also downloaded at least one TV app.
Furthermore, a fifth of families with a tablet said they watch different content on different screens while in the same room all or most of the time.
Superfast broadband rollout gathers pace
Superfast broadband is now available to almost three-quarters of UK premises. Just under a fifth of all fixed broadband connections were superfast at the end of March 2013, with subscribers doubling from 1.9 million to 3.8 million in the nine months prior.
One third of consumers said value for money was the main consideration when selecting their superfast provider, and the most notable way users said it had changed their internet use was to increase the amount of TV programmes and full-length films they were streaming.
72% of respondents said that they had increased their levels of streaming high-definition content since switching to a superfast service, while 64% had increased streaming of standard-definition content.