UK Television audience continues to grow
The overall UK television viewing audience continues to show year-on-year growth, according to the latest IPA Trends in Television Report.
Average hours of television viewing for the third quarter of 2008 was 3.54 hours, compared to 3.38 in 2007. This is the highest level recorded for this quarter since the start of the current BARB panel in 2002, said the IPA.
Additional key findings:
- The non-terrestrial channels continued to grow and are now approaching a 40% share of viewing
- Demographically, channel performances retain much the same pattern as they have held for some time. The strong bias of the non-terrestrial audience to the young age groups remains a key feature
- Digital reception continues to grow across each platform and now stands at 83.2% overall. The individual growth for each digital platform indicates that more homes are installing multiple platforms
Lynne Robinson, IPA research director, said: “This is another good quarter for television, with year-on-year viewing levels recording another healthy growth.
“Digital reception now stands at 83.2% which hopefully will minimise the disruption caused by the ongoing digital switchover.”
Ofcom’s latest digital television update, released last month, revealed that take-up of multichannel television on main sets in UK households increased from 87.2% to 88% in Q2 (see Digital TV Households In UK Up To 88%).
IPA: 020 7235 7020 www.ipa.co.uk