TV viewers increasingly using alternative screens
April 5, 2016
Colin Mann @ MIPTV
TV viewers worldwide are increasingly watching programmes on other screens according to research from Eurodata TV Worldwide. For example – in Canada, 60 per cent of 18 to 34 year olds watched a full TV programme online last month; In France, 6 per cent of web users aged 15 and over are watching TV programmes online every day.
Increased ownership of devices is driving these practices – for example, almost 2 out 3 French people have a smartphone and more than two thirds of Dutch people own a tablet.
The public also view in a delinearised fashion, whether watching a pre-recording or on replay. In 2015 in 26 countries that measure time-shifted and replay audiences, delinearised viewing added an extra 7 per cent of audience, in other words 15 minutes per day on average. Globally, television viewing time in 2015 amounted to 3 hours and 14 minutes, around 3 minutes less than in 2014. Big live events continues to gather a large audience in front of TV sets: 151 million viewers watched CCTV’s New Year’s Gala on Chinese New Year’s Eve, the largest worldwide audience again in 2015 . In the US, the Oscars are the number 1 programme for 2015, in Venezuela, it was Miss Universe, in Iceland, the New Year’s Eve programme.
New practices are gradually being taken into account in audience measurement – across the 89 countries researched, 31 measure recording, 21 replay, 14 TV viewing on personal computers and 6 on tablets and smartphones. In 2016 , 7 countries are planning to incorporate the 4 screen TV audience figures into the official measurements, including France.
For Sahar Baghery, Head of Global Research and Content Strategy at Eurodata TV Worldwide : “The theme of this new TV season will be diversification: diversification of distribution, of technology, of content and creative centres. We now order our TV “à la carte” and from a vast menu!”
Frédéric Vaulpré, Vice-President of Eurodata TV Worldwide, adds : “At the same time as we increasingly watch TV on other screens and pre-recorded, audience measurement is evolving in many countries to take this new usage into account.”