Why we watch television 2 Foreword Television is facing Sony has a long tradition of But now, in the era of connected unprecedented leading and supporting the television and online video industry through transformation available on demand, it’s disruptive change. and technology innovation. possible to focus on the needs of the individual viewer. This report provides a personal Companies are placing big view to help inform the way we We’re all individuals, with different bets on new forms of video think about television and video. backgrounds, identities and distribution, without necessarily perspectives. understanding why people might It aims to address the apparently want to watch. simple question of why we watch We all have our own reasons for television. watching television and they vary There’s a popular perception that according to the viewing context. the traditional model of television It considers what we mean by is broken, but it’s far from clear television, what television means By studying the fundamental how it will be replaced. to us and how that might evolve. psychology and sociology of our behaviours as human beings, we To understand this transformation Television has typically provided can better understand why we of television, we really need to mass audiences with shared watch television, and how we appreciate the nature of the experiences. And it will continue may view in the future. medium, the needs it addresses to do so. and the ways it’s used. Dr William Cooper Media Consultant informitv Why we watch television 3 Contents Introduction 4 Television features 7 Television research 17 Television viewing 23 Television evolution 33 Conclusions 39 Why we watch television 4 Introduction What do we mean by The idea of television includes: These are now becoming television? absorbed into a wider domain of • The screen on which it’s video media, which can deliver generally seen many of the features we have traditionally associated with The very concept of what • The medium of broadcast, television. constitutes television is constantly one-to-many transmission evolving. We can now view high-quality • The channel for delivering online video on a handheld Television can no longer scheduled output screen. Whether we call that be defined by the way it’s television depends on what transmitted or the screen on • The form and format of we’re watching as much as how which it’s seen. programmes it’s delivered. Although the way that television • The function of public service We still think in terms of reading a programmes are delivered and broadcasting book, whether we bought it from viewed are changing, we’re a bookshop, ordered it online, or spending more time watching • The business models of downloaded it to a tablet. video than ever. commercial and pay television The medium of television is Television is difficult to define, but • The regulation systems under determined as much by the form we know it when we see it. which it operates. of its programmes and the way they’re viewed as any particular delivery technology. Why we watch television 5 What does television For decades, television has More than any other medium, mean to us? played a leading role in our lives. television can: Television is part of our popular culture. • talk to us It’s become fashionable to Television opens a window that • look us in the eye assume that we’re now in a frames our view of the wider post-television era. Yet we world. • show us new things should be wary of premature proclamations of the death of Coverage of global events can • tell us extended stories television. bring the world together. It shows us things we would not otherwise • move us. Despite the ever-increasing see and provides a context for availability of online video on our own experience. Watching television allows us to demand, the vast majority of our express our emotions, to laugh viewing is still of programming It provides an important public out loud, or have a good cry. delivered over traditional and social service. It offers us channels, seen on a television a constant companion and a Television is also often simply part screen. sense of connection to the wider of the background while we’re world. doing other things. Why we watch television 6 How will television There’s a prevalent view that we New ways of viewing are likely to evolve? will all want to watch whatever displace, but not entirely replace, we want, wherever we want, the function of television. whenever we want. However programmes are Some might argue that television, Yet we still want to watch delivered, we’ll still see them on the dominant medium of the late programmes that other people a screen and we’ll probably think twentieth century, is in inevitable watch. It’s an experience that we of them as television. decline and will be displaced want to share with others, even if by other forms of video viewing we’re viewing alone. Other forms of online video enabled by new digital networks. and social media will address Many of us watch television in some of our needs. But there’ll With rare exceptions, fewer much the same way as we ever still be a place for scheduled people are watching any did, largely through habit. programming, and in particular particular programme at the live broadcasting. same time. In fact, many of our underlying behaviours remain the same, Rather than viewing other Much is made of new delivery driven by the same fundamental forms of video as a threat to technologies establishing human needs. It’s just that traditional television, we should different viewing patterns. they manifest themselves in see them as a way of adapting apparently different ways. and extending the television We can now watch programmes experience to fit the way we live at our convenience, but the our lives. impact of this is often overstated. Why we watch television 7 Television features Television offer 8 Convenient viewing 13 Viewing context 9 Live or recorded 14 Ambient media 10 Direct address 15 Constant flow 11 Unseen observer 16 Available to view 12 Why we watch television 8 Television offer The main promise of These all have different For all those that watch less, television, its premise characteristics, making them there are those that watch even more or less open to substitution more. and value proposition, by different modes of distribution is that there’ll always and competing activities. The range and quality of programmes that we can now be something new to Television remains relatively access is incredible. watch. cheap, virtually unlimited, entertainment. Once the poor relation to movies, television dramas are It’s an effortless all you can eat increasingly epic in cinematic Whether we can actually find buffet that never runs out. It’s scope and ambition, extending something we want to watch is food for thought. over many seasons. another matter. Watching television is our most Sound and vision reproduction is The overall output has broad popular pastime. For many of us higher fidelity than ever. appeal, whether it’s free to it’s our default leisure activity. It’s view or through a subscription, what we do when we’re not doing In many ways, television has however it’s delivered, to something else. never been better. It offers more whatever screen. choice, higher production values, On average we watch for about better sound and pictures, and Television covers multiple genres, a day a week, a seventh of our more ways of watching. from factual to fictional, from live lives. events to recorded drama. Why we watch television Viewing context 9 The typical marketing Yet this isn’t how we generally If anything, we take television for picture of people watch television. granted. watching television If we’re holding a remote control The more viewing options we shows a happy family we’re probably looking for have, the less we feel compelled something to watch. to gather around a single screen. group, with someone excitedly pointing a These days we’re as likely to be Watching television is generally a holding a phone or a tablet and discretionary, substitutable leisure remote control at the looking for something else to do. activity. screen. Once the focal point of the living We don’t have to watch room, the television screen no television. It’s an amenity rather longer commands our complete than a utility. They’ll often be eating popcorn attention. from a bowl while watching a We could do other things to pass movie, or punching the air in Television is still a feature of the time. That includes other support of a favourite sports most homes. We acknowledge forms of media that compete for team. its presence and live our lives our attention. around it, like a family pet. So why do we watch television? Why we watch television 10 Ambient media Television is an ambient Of course a noisy programme It was always like that. It just used medium that fills the that we’re not interested in can to be knitting or the newspaper. be distracting, intrusive, or even room with sights and a reason to change channel, We now have more screens in sounds. It’s there with us switch off or leave the room. our homes, including phones and tablets that can compete whenever it’s switched Television frequently provides directly for our attention. on, whether we’re really the background for other things we’re doing. They offer features that have watching or not. similar properties and meet Although this is often referred to similar needs: games, social as multitasking, we’re actually media and other online services.