New Reports Show Increases in U.K. TV Viewing

LONDON: Two separate reports indicate that Britons are watching more TV than ever, with Thinkbox reporting that per-week viewership is up by 2 hours in the first half of this year, while Ofcom has found that consumers are spending 45 percent of their waking hours watching TV, using their mobiles and other communications devices.

From January to June, people in the U.K. watched an average of 28 hours, 15 minutes of linear, broadcast TV a week, 9.1-percent higher than the five-year average for the period, Thinkbox reports. Causes include the World Cup, the wide-scale availability of digital TV, an updated TV measurement system, the prevalence of DVRs and on-demand TV services, and the recession, resulting in people staying home more often. Thinkbox says that commercial broadcast TV accounted for 62 percent of total viewing in the first half. The average viewer watched 17 hours, 26 minutes of commercial TV a week during Jan-Jun, up by 48 minutes on the same period last year.

Ofcom’s annual Communications Market Report also notes that consumers are still attached to their TV sets. Although media multitasking is widespread, half of people consume only one type of media in the evening—live television. The average person watches 3 hours and 45 minutes of TV per day. However, online catch-up TV is also on the rise; 31 percent of homes used online catch-up services in Q1.

In addition, Ofcom says that household monthly spend on communication services fell 9.4 percent over the past five years to £91.24. Other key findings include the fall in the number of TV channels—the first since 2004—from 495 to 490, and a fall in UK TV revenue as a whole for the first time since 2003, down by 0.4 percent from 2008 to £11.1 billion. Net TV advertising revenue fell 9.6 percent to £3.1 billion.