UK viewers stay with traditional TV set

In the UK 98.5% of all TV viewing is on a traditional TV set and just 1.5% is on other screens such as tablets, according to Thinkbox research.

Total average daily TV viewing in the UK during January-June 2013 was 4 hours, 1 minute a day per person. This comprised: three hours, 58 minutes a day of linear TV on a TV set. This is three minutes a day less than the same period last year (source: Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board [BARB]). One reason for the slight drop is the improving economy.

Three minutes, 30 seconds a day via devices such as tablets, smartphones and laptops (or just over three half-hour TV shows a month). This is mostly on-demand but some live streams (source: figures supplied by UK broadcasters to Thinkbox).

In total, viewing on non-TV set devices via established services such as ITV Player, Sky Go, 4OD and BBC iPlayer, and new services like Dave On-demand, accounted for 1.5% of overall TV viewing during the first half of 2013. This is a slight increase on the full year figure for 2012, when it accounted for 1.2%.

The average viewer watched 3 hours, 58 minutes a day of linear TV on a TV set during January-June, compared to 4 hours, 1 minute during the same period in 2012, according to BARB. 12 minutes more linear TV a day during the first half of the year than ten years ago.

89% of linear TV was watched live compared to 89.9% in 2012.

BARB’s measurement system captures the amount of linear TV that is recorded on digital TV recorders (DTRs) – such as Sky+, Freeview+ and Virgin Media’s TiVo – and watched within seven days of the original broadcast. It also captures any on-demand TV watched on a TV set in this period, although this is still a very small figure and BARB does not currently publish it separately.

In the estimated 58% of households that own DTRs, 83.8 % of linear TV was watched live compared to 84.4% in Jan-Jun 2012. 81% of all time shifted viewing is watched within two days of recording. 47% of time shifted viewing is seen within 24 hours of it being recorded

BARB’s figures suggest that the growth in the amount of TV that is recorded and played back is slowing down. Ofcom also stated this in its recent Communications Market Report 2013.

Once all households have the ability to digitally record TV programmes, Thinkbox expects the average level of recorded and playback TV viewing to settle at around 15-20% of total linear viewing, as it has in those households that do currently own DTRs. However on-demand TV will increase as a proportion of the time-shifted total.

BARB’s figures do not yet include TV viewed on devices other than TV sets, however figures supplied by the UK TV broadcaster show that this viewing accounted for an average of 3 minutes, 30 seconds of viewing a day per viewer.

With the spread of internet-connected TV sets, Thinkbox expects that some on-demand viewing, which currently takes place off the TV set, will move to the TV set, as that is the screen people prefer to watch TV on.

Lindsey Clay, Thinkbox’s managing director: “We know that people watch live TV and on demand TV for different reasons. They co-exist and together are helping TV to grow as a medium. People’s ongoing enthusiasm for it TV, and their growing enthusiasm for embracing new ways to watch it, is great news for advertisers, who don’t always get the recognition they deserve for contributing to TV’s health and expansion.”