More TV adverts being watched than ever before as linear TV viewing hours stabilise in UK
Following the continued growth of non-linear TV viewing, research has found that the number of hours of linear TV viewing has now stabilised at around four hours a day, while the numbers of adverts being viewed on TV on a daily basis has reached a new high.
Research from the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB), also discovered that 10 percent of the UK’s TV consumption during the first half of 2012 had been through non-live ‘time-shifted’ content, an increase of 9 percent over the last 12 months.
Of total linear viewing through the first half of the year, 67 percent was through commercial television, average by an extra minute each day at two hours and 36 minutes.
Almost half of recorded TV (47 percent) was also viewed on the same day as it was originally broadcast, indicating that viewers prefer to stay close to the broadcast schedule.
Additional non-TV viewing through live-stream and on-demand on laptops, tablets and smartphones also continued to grow, with 1.2 percent of extra TV viewing taking place across other devices.
The number of TV adverts being viewed at normal speed this year also reached a new high in the UK, with 491 billion TV adverts watched between January and June, an increase of 1.6 percent on the same period in 2011, and average of 47 adverts per person each day.
Lindsey Clay, managing director of Thinkbox, commented;“As predicted, there are signs linear viewing levels will stabilise around the 4 hour mark after the sustained period of record growth. We’d be surprised if there was further growth in total linear viewing as hopefully the economy will improve and we’ll leave the house more - plus more people now have on-demand fully integrated on their TV sets and the stimulus of digital switchover is drawing to a close. However, our preference for watching TV live will remain and overall we’re likely to be watching more TV as a result.”