Survey: TV most popular medium for live viewing
March 13, 2019
In a global survey of consumers of OTT and live services, conducted on behalf of Nevion, almost three-quarters (70 per cent) of respondents said they still watched the majority of programmes on a television, while only one-fifth (20 per cent) regularly view content on their laptop.
The survey from Nevion, a provider of virtualised media production solutions, also found that 65 per cent of viewers favor paid for services and pay-TV platforms. When looking at viewing habits, Nevion discovered that the most popular time for viewing media is in the evening (71 per cent), with only 8 per cent saying they watch TV in the morning and just 3 per cent saying they do so on their commute.
More than half of viewers (57 per cent) are being driven to watch content live due to social media and word of mouth making it increasingly difficult to avoid spoilers.
“Despite the rise of on-demand services, live content is still favored by the majority of people with 73 per cent of our sample deeming live coverage important. With so many still using their televisions to view this content and with avoiding spoilers being a major concern, it is clear that TV viewing is still often seen as an event. People want to sit down and watch it on a big screen and dedicate real time to it, rather than watching on their phone while they’re on the go,” said Olivier Suard, Vice President of Marketing, Nevion.
When looking at the most popular live TV events, sports came out top, followed by the news, reality shows and domestic or global events, such as royal weddings and presidential inaugurations.
“We can see that the majority of individuals are willing to pay for good content with free to air TV the first choice for only 10 per cent of viewers,” added Suard. “All this emphasises the importance of producing ever more compelling live content, but more cost effectively. It proves higher-definition production isn’t being wasted on small screens as most people watch content on a TV, where it is best displayed – regardless of whether the connection is cable, digital TV or OTT. As broadcasters and content providers look to meet the demands of a growth in content, we are seeing increasing adoption of IP in production and Nevion is pleased to have been at the forefront of helping broadcasters make that move.”