Television, the drug of the nation

By Mike King

Yesterday’s Ofcom report on the UK communications market includes an analysis of TV viewing habits and reveals some surprising trends, particularly in relation to the amount of time spent watching TV. 

While the report covers a lot of obvious ground (like the massive growth in tablet and smart phone use) it is an increase in the average time spent watching TV that struck me as most surprising.  

According to Ofcom’s figures, the average person in the UK watches TV for just over four hours a day; that’s 15 minutes more than in 2008. 

On top of that, 90% of TV viewed in 2012 was live (i.e. viewed as it was broadcast) rather than from a recording or from an on-demand service.

Based on my own experiences, I’d have expected the opposite - a drop in viewing times and a much lower percentage of TV being watched live.  In my household viewing levels have plummeted over the past few years and the TV content that is watched tends to fall almost exclusively between live sporting events and on-demand programmes.  

The explanation, according to the report, is that we’re becoming a nation of digital multi-taskers so although we have more ways to consume digital media than ever (including, of course, multiple devices for internet access) there is an increasing tendency for people to use these devices at the same time, such as tablets or smart phones while watching TV. 

So people are watching more TV but are not really watching it properly because they are doing something else at the same time. 

While TV viewing figures are up, the number of TVs per household has dropped (41% of households had just one TV in 2012 compared with 35% in 2002) driven, in part, by the increased use of tablets for viewing TV content.  As a result, Ofcom claims, “families are gathering in the living room to watch TV just as they were in the 1950s”.  Though I imagine the difference today is that the family members are largely ignoring each other as they media multi-task and struggle with feelings of depression.  

More detail on the Ofcom report can be found here.