FROM 2.4 CHILDREN TO 2.4 TELEVISIONS - REPORT REVEALS UK’S GROWING TV INFATUATION

TV Licensing research shows UK TV watching trends

People are filling their homes with more televisions than ever and on average are watching TV over an hour a day more than they think, a TV Licensing report on the nation’s viewing habits reveals today.

More Information

How much are we watching?

Adults in Britain think they watch an average of less than 20 hours of TV a week, or around three hours a day (ICM poll), but the true average in 2010 was more than 30 hours a week, or over four hours a day (the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB).
The BARB average for all ages (including children) is 28 hours of TV watching a week, which is over three hours a week more than in 2001 - and doesn't include the TV we watch on equipment other than our TV sets.

How are we watching?

Over 9.5m flat screen TV sets were bought across the UK in 2010 - double the number sold in 2002. The most dramatic trend has been the increase in sales of flat screen TVs with screens 40” or bigger, from fewer than 600,000 sales in 2006 to over 2 million in 2010 (GfK Retail & Technology).
We’re buying far more flat screen TVs than our European neighbours: 43m sets were sold in Britain between 2004 and 2010, compared to 28m in Germany and 27m in France.
125,000 of TVs sold in 2010 were 3D-enabled and if the growth rate from the last three months continues, 3D TV sales are expected to reach around half a million in 2011.
Despite the rise in popularity of catch up services, only around 0.2% of UK adults exclusively watch TV online across an average week

What are we watching?

The most 'time-shifted' programme watched on the BBC iPlayer in 2010 was, ironically, Matt Smith's debut as Doctor Who, with over 2.2m requests (on top of the 12.3m who watched it live). So while the trend is that catch-up is thriving, it has some way to go to rival the 17.7m who tuned in live to watch The X Factor final on ITV, or the 17.4m who watched England's World Cup exit to Germany

When are we watching?

Women watch four hours of TV a week more than men (32 vs 28 hours) according to BARB, but underestimate their viewing time more - with the TV Licensing/ICM poll showing women think they watch just 21 hours a week, compared to 20 hours for men.
With the emergence of catch-up TV, the concept of prime-time is changing, primarily among younger people - those aged 18-24 are almost evenly divided on when their peak viewing hour is between 7pm and 10pm (with each hour getting 27%, 25% and 29% of the vote respectively), while those aged 35-44 were more in agreement that the peak hour is 8-9pm (with 40% opting for this period).

Where are we watching?

People now have an average of 2.4 rooms with TVs in them, and by 2020, that’s expected to rise to three.
We want TV sets in more rooms over the next decade, with 8% expecting to have a dedicated cinema room by 2020 and the same proportion planning to put a set in their bathrooms.

TV Licensing facts and statistics:

Almost 97% of households have televisions and there are more than 25 million TV Licences in force.
You need a TV Licence to watch or record programmes as they are being shown on TV, regardless of the device you use, how you receive them, or what channel you watch.
TV Licensing aims to maximise the money received from the licence fee, and does this by collecting the fee as efficiently as possible.
In 2009/10, TV Licensing collected an extra £85m for BBC programmes and services and kept evasion at a low of around 5%.
It's now easier than ever to buy a TV Licence.
A colour TV Licence currently cost £145.50. A black and white TV Licence currently costs £49.00.
Viewing television without a licence risks prosecution and a fine of up to £1,000.
TV Licensing aims to make it as easy as possible for people to buy a TV Licence, which is why there are many ways to pay.
Visit www.tvlicensing.co.uk/info or call 0300 790 6112.

Core Facts

We’re watching more TV than ever before – much more than we think in fact
TV sales are on the rise
Catch-up services such as the iPlayer and 4oD are growing in popularity
But we still enjoy watching in traditional ways
And we definitely still tune in live for the “big” ticket moments such as the X Factor final and World Cup matches

Images

Relevant Files

Name: TeleScope-Report-Infographic.pdf, Size: bytes, Download

Quotes

TV has changed dramatically in the last 20 years - not just in the nature and range of programmes being made, but in the many ways people can now watch them. This report reflects the UK's great passion for TV and shows that, while much is changing, some things will always remain reassuringly the same: great TV will continue to unite people, providing a unique medium for entertainment, education, information and debate for years to come.

Pipa Doubtfire, Head of Revenue Management for BBC TV Licensing, said:

When my grandfather famously unveiled the world’s first working television system in early 1926, they were astonished. Although cinema and radio were established by 1926, television still seemed like science fiction. Since that giant leap, technology has never stopped advancing and today we are witnessing faster developments than ever before. In profound ways, television builds collective identities via mass amplification of experience and memory, while influencing individual creativity. It invites us into other worlds so that we may escape the hectic pace of our own. It expands our understanding of the world stage and the roles we can play in it. There is no question television is playing a more central role in our lives than ever.

Iain Logie Baird, grandson of the inventor of the first television set, John Logie Baird, and curator at the National Media Museum in Bradford, who has penned the foreword to the TeleScope report, said:

Technology may change how we watch TV, but those changes won’t be as dramatic as most experts predict. Millions more of us will watch television on the move, thanks to cheaper, lighter, better handheld devices. And many more of us will chat to each other electronically about programmes while we’re watching thanks both to those new handheld devices and to the new computer/television hybrids that are already starting to appear in the living room.
But what we actually watch won’t change that much at all: people will still want news, sport, drama, films and entertainment shows. Why? Because people like to find out what’s going on and chat about it. And people will still complain that television is dumbing down because they forget television's most vital function is to give us something mildly diverting to chill out to after a hard day at work or school.

Ben Preston, editor of the Radio Times, said: