The latest news from Thinkbox that linear TV viewing in the UK has increased by 2 hours 29 minutes a week in the first quarter compared with the same period last year – up to a total of no less than 30 hours 4 minutes a week – is easily explicable. There is more digital choice, better recording equipment, better audience measurement and recessionary pressures on cconsumers to opt for the cheapest entertainment medium of all.
But the really interesting figures reveal the relatively modest proportion of non-live, “time shifted” television. It will rise of course over time as more viewers get personal video recorders and sets that take content direct from the internet to the TV screen BUT right now it stands at only 6.9 per cent.And 78 per cent of viewers watch on-demand TV mainly to catch up with programmes from the broadcast schedules that they have missed.
If there an on-demand TV revolution under way its close and well disguised. Thinkbox, funded by the commercial television industry also notes that the number of ads watched at normal speed rose by 4.9 per cent compared with the same period last year and the average viewer is now seeing 48 ads a day compared with 45 last year.
Raymond Snoddy
