One Third Of TV Viewers Watch TV Away From The Box
Almost one-third of viewers aged 25-34 watch television programmes away from the TV, with the majority of those watching TV via broadband spending “over 30 minutes” per day, while of those viewing via a mobile phone, most spent “up to ten minutes” per day.
Consumers, it seems, are willing to accept advertising in a different format, with the study showing that amongst younger groups, over half are willing to watch content funded by advertisers.
When asked about their attitudes towards “entertaining content” funded by advertisers, 32% said they would watch it, choosing not to use the skip through technology offered by PVRs. This percentage rose sharply in amongst the 18-24 year old group to 61%, declining for 25-35 year olds to 46%.
Despite these findings, Contentworx claimed that skipping through the “ad-break” at “30 times normal speed” was considered by respondents as the best feature of PVRs, however, just 23% said that they would be prepared to pay to avoid watching adverts.
Turning to video-on-demand (VOD), the report revealed that 43% of respondents said that they would be willing to pay for this type of service, rising dramatically amongst 18-24 year olds, where 73% said they would pay, with the majority saying they were prepared to pay “over £16” per month for the privilege, compared with 7% “less than £5”, 14% “£6 to £10” and 13% £11 to £15.
Commenting on the research, Andrew Canter, managing director of Contentworx said: “This study gives us a real insight into how people are fundamentally changing their viewing habits. It also shows that consumers are willing to accept advertisers funding content but expect it to be entertaining and relevant towards them.”
He continued: “There is a minority that are prepared to pay to avoid ‘ads’ in the future, but this rises to potentially worrying levels amongst the key younger consumer target groups. We are convinced that this work will help us make a real difference to our clients business in the future.”
Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Dr Robert Pepper, senior managing director of global advanced technology policy at Cisco Systems, claimed that PVRs are significantly changing the way in which people watch television, with 5% of current TV viewing in the US time-shifted, predicted to rise to 10% by the end of next year and 25% by 2008 (see Quarter Of US Consumers Forecast To Time-Shift By 2008).
Previous industry opinion was that PVRs would cause a severe threat to advertisers, with viewers using the devices to skip through a large proportion of adverts. Recent research from Accenture predicts that nearly 10% of all television commercials will be skipped by 2009 due to the fast forwarding technology (see US Advertisers To Lose 10% Of Commercial Impacts By 2009).
However, advertisers are being sent mixed signals over the dangers of PVR uptake. US studies from Frank N.Magid Associates claim that despite advertisers’ fears of TV adverts being skipped with the new technology, 55% of PVR users stop to watch adverts that catch their eye (see Strong Growth For Entertainment Industry Led By Online Games).
New research from ESPN agrees with this, claiming that the majority of PVR households in the US are relatively new to the technology, with the devices not yet affecting their television viewing behaviour (see PVRs Not Yet Affecting TV Viewing Behaviour).