Freeview Tops British Poll of TV Innovations

LONDON, August 11: TV
viewers in the U.K. have voted Freeview as the technology that has had the
greatest impact on the way they watch television, while mobile TV was reported
to have no influence on consumers’ habits.

The survey, conducted by
Deloitte/YouGov on behalf of the Media Guardian Edinburgh International
Television Festival, polled 2,046 viewers and found that 35 percent selected
Freeview as the most important TV innovation of the last decade, followed
closely by PVRs at 22 percent. Mobile TV did not receive any votes by viewers
in the poll, and 31 percent of TV executives agreed that mobile has had the
most muted impact on the industry.

Meanwhile, only 10 percent
of viewers felt that widescreen TV had the greatest impact on their television
consumption, with a lesser 2 percent of respondents naming HD broadcast as the
most important technology.

Interactivity via the red
button and Internet TV were only chosen by 7 percent of the viewers polled, but
with 18- to 24-year-olds, Internet TV garnered 18 percent of the votes.

Deloitte media partner
Howard Davies commented: “The television industry has benefited from tremendous
technological advances over the past few years. But it appears that viewers
have little desire for the fundamental way in which they watch television to
change. The majority of viewers still want high-quality, scheduled content.
Whilst choice is desired, in the form of hundreds of channels and PVRs,
choosing is less commonplace.”

Jolyon Barker, the head of
U.K. technology, media and telecommunications for Deloitte, added: “It will be
interesting to see whether this behavior does change as people age. When
today’s 18- to 24-year-olds settle down, work full time and start families,
television’s principal role may change from providing excitement and engagement
to being more about rest and relaxation. However, some practices will
inevitably be retained and today’s youth might find that an hour spent
downloading videos is the best way to wind down at the end of the day. Habits,
especially our second most time-consuming pastime after sleep, are hard to
change.”

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski