Thinkbox: Live TV and VoD can co-exist
July 3, 2013
A study into how people watch TV has revealed some key differences between watching TV live and on-demand and between different types of VoD. It has also explained why live viewing continues to thrive alongside VoD.
The study – Screen Life: TV in demand – was commissioned by Thinkbox, the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK, from Flamingo and Tapestry. It involved the analysis of over 100 hours of footage from 18 households from across the UK for two weeks. It also involved a diary study of 662 adults, across 3,692 viewing occasions providing 250,000 data points for analysis.
The research sample was more technologically advanced than average. All respondents owned a smartphone and 46 per cent owned a tablet. Crucially the sample was also heavy VoD viewers with 74 per cent of the sample watching VoD at least once a week. This compares with the 52 per cent of the UK who has ever watched VoD, according to IPA Touchpoints data.
The six reasons we watch TV
The study explains why, in an era when people can choose to watch what they want when they want, the UK continues to watch live TV 90 per cent of the time: the live TV experience satisfies human emotional needs that on demand viewing alone can’t.
The researchers identified six core reasons why people watch TV:
• Unwind: defer life’s chores or de-stress from the pressures of the day
• Comfort: shared family time; togetherness, rituals, familiarity and routine
• Connect: a sense of ‘plugging in – to feel a sense of connection to society, to time or to place
• Experience: a need for fun and a sense of occasion to be shared
• Escape: the desire to be taken on an enjoyable journey to another time and place
• Indulge: satisfying your (typically guilty) pleasures with personal favourites, usually alone
Man cannot live by VoD alone
VoD excels at satisfying personal approaches to TV, specifically indulging and escaping, but it is less equipped for more social needs such as unwinding and seeking comfort. This is supported by the finding that for 54 per cent of the occasions we watch live TV we’re with someone else compared to 30 per cent for VoD. And for viewers who want to connect and feel like they are sharing a TV experience with the outside world, then live TV was judged by far the best way.
Match the ad to the need
The study found that congruent advertising (where the ad creative matches the need state of the viewer) can help advertisers maximise the effectiveness of their campaign – a finding which supports previous studies into congruence. Matching the category or brand, tone and message to the predominant need state of the audience will increase response, especially if this also suits the device being used.
Since live TV satisfies all the need states identified by the study, a wide range of narrative styles and advertisers will fit. Since VoD excels at particular need states, and is currently used on other devices, advertisers need to be more cautious.
‘What’s on’ is first port of call
Even among the heavy VoD viewers in the research sample, 60 per cent typically checked what was on the live TV schedule first before considering other options.
The TV set rules
The TV set is overwhelmingly the preferred way to watch, whatever the reason people are watching. This is especially true of TV for comfort or to unwind, where at least 90 per cent is watched on the TV set.
Young people are happy to wait (so they can share)
Connecting was the most important reason to watch TV for 18-24s. 28 per cent of their viewing was in order to connect –almost double the average from the research sample (15 per cent).
When given a choice between having the option to download a new series they liked in one go or waiting to watch it week by week on live TV, 73 per cent of 18-24s in the research sample said they prefer to watch it week by week. This was more than the older audience of 35-55s (57 per cent).
TV remains rooted in the living room but new devices enable ‘place-shifting’
Live TV is almost exclusively watched on a TV set, however in the study’s heavy VoD-viewing sample, VoD was split across different screens: 37 per cent was watched on the TV set; 45 per cent on a PC; 14 per cent on a tablet; and 4 per cent on a smartphone.
The further away people go from live TV, the less likely it is they are watching on a TV set. Only 5 per cent of social video – such as on YouTube – was watched on a TV set, compared to 62 per cent on a PC, 11 per cent on a tablet, and 22 per cent on a smartphone. It is also less likely they are watching with someone else: 54 per cent of live TV viewing was with someone else compared to 30 per cent on VoD and 19 per cent on social video.
Social video is also watched in different locations: 34 per cent in the living room, 56 per cent in another room, and 10 per cent out of home. For VoD this place-shifting is evident but less pronounced with 51 per cent of viewing in the living room, 43 per cent in another room, and 6 per cent out of home.
According to Neil Mortensen, Research and Planning Director, Thinkbox, the research gets to the heart of why we watch TV and explains the apparent conundrum of why people choose to watch so much live TV when they don’t have to. “It shows that VoD is a brilliant and treasured new way to enjoy TV, but it can’t give people everything they demand from TV – particularly the highly valued social elements. Live TV is best equipped to meet all of the needs and that is why it will endure, no matter what new platforms emerge. Live TV is our daily food whereas VoD is more like a box of chocolates.”
Screen Life is an ongoing series of research studies by Thinkbox looking at emerging TV technologies and behaviours. Thinkbox’s first ‘Screen Life’ study – Screen Life: the view from the sofa- revealed that connected viewers are nothing but good news for commercial TV, showing that multi-screening is making TV advertising even more effective by enabling people to chat, play, discover and buy things as they watch.