Thinkbox: U.K. SVOD Viewing Nearly Doubled in 2015

LONDON: In the U.K., SVOD viewing on services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime accounted for 4 percent of total video consumption, up from 2.3 percent in 2014, according to new figures from Thinkbox.

The average TV viewer in the U.K. watched a total of 3 hours, 51 minutes of TV a day in 2015, 1 percent less than in 2014 but 5 percent more than in 2005. For the average viewer, 3 hours, 47 minutes of TV a day was watched on a TV set; 4 minutes was watched on other devices, such as tablets, smartphones and laptops.

According to a new Thinkbox analysis of video viewing—combining comScore data with BARB data, Broadcaster VOD stream data, Rentrak box office numbers and calibrating this metered/census level data with the IPA’s Touchpoints study—the total amount of video the U.K. is watching has increased. In 2015, the average person in the U.K. watched 4 hours, 35 minutes a day of video in all its different forms, an increase of 15 minutes a day since Thinkbox first analyzed total video time in 2014.

TV (live, playback or on-demand across all screens) had a 76 percent share of total video viewing in 2015. This share is down from 81 percent in 2014, however this is set against the increase in the overall amount of video being watched. In 2015, the average person in the U.K. watched just 3 minutes less TV a day than in 2014. YouTube has grown as a proportion of total video in the last year, up from 3.5 percent in 2014 to 4.4 percent in 2015.

Lindsey Clay, Thinkbox’s CEO, said: “TV has expanded in recent years into new times and places; the way we watch TV is changing. We need to show as accurate a picture as possible of how much TV we are watching—and where TV sits in the emerging video world. With so many different forms of video out there it can be confusing so it is important to get a grip on what is really happening.

“These new figures show that TV dominates the video world for all age groups. Today’s young people watch on-demand forms of video more than the generations before that didn’t grow up with them. This makes sense as they do not tend to have control of the TV set and so turn to their personal screens to watch what they want. What is remarkable is that in the last decade, when so many new technologies and services have arrived that could have disrupted TV, TV viewing has remained so dominant.”