TV viewing in the internet age television as its content and would transform There are important regional variations television into an art form. Some internet too. Put simply, the further away you live from BARB’s study of UK TV evangelists disagree and prefer to proclaim London, the less likely you are to timeshift viewing habits shows 87% the death of television – in particular, linear your viewing. Work–life balance issues have of all viewing is still live at television. This isn’t a new assertion by media to be at play: those low timeshift viewers in owners keen to attract television advertising Ulster, Wales, Scotland and the Borders are the point of broadcast, with budgets, although the voices sometimes seem probably enjoying all the benefits of living other uses for the TV screen louder than ever. away from the cities. The biggest timeshifters BARB is a joint industry currency that are Londoners and those in the South and representing on average is owned by the television and advertising South-East, many of whom spend long hours only 40 minutes per day. community in the UK. For 35 years we have at work sandwiched between soul-destroying been providing impartial evidence on how long commutes. Netflix and Amazon Video people watch television and are well are growing but are placed to investigate whether the complementary to linear TV alleged malaise is real or perhaps just FIGURE 1: TIMESHIFTING ANALYSIS wishful thinking. There are several Percentage timeshift viewing, 2015 and online viewing is still claims that are used to fan the flames. 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% Genre: in its infancy. The number Drama I NEVER WATCH TV LIVE of non-TV households Education ANY MORE Arts is increasing slightly, 1When I joined ITV in 2004, Documentaries although still hovering people would tell me that they Films just didn’t watch any television. It Entertainment around the 5% mark never took long to elicit four or five Hobbies/leisure programmes that they never missed. Music This critique has evolved and people Children’s Sport now tell me they don’t watch live 13.2% By Justin Sampson, BARB television any more; cue the surprised Religious Average looks when I explain that 87% of all Current affairs timeshift ur individual and collective viewing is still live at the point of News/weather viewing desire for new and different broadcast. Perhaps the reason for the Party political broadcast experiences means we often surprise is because it’s the busiest Demographics: place a premium on the new people who are most likely to timeshift Adults ABC1 and overlook the benefits their viewing – busiest or, in the case Adults C2DE O of more established options. Yet it’s rare of children, those subject to other time for established ways of doing things to be pressures, such as parents telling them Age: 16–24 completely displaced. It was in 1913 that it’s time for bed. 25–34 Riepl’s law was coined: we accumulate new By and large, the most avid viewers 35–44 forms of media behaviour and rarely discard of recorded television programmes are 45–54 old forms of usage. Instead, a convergence of those who have a life outside the home: 55+ behaviours takes place. adults between the age of 16 and 44, Men In a similar vein, it was in the early 1960s with a pronounced peak in the 25–34 Women that Marshall McLuhan predicted the arrival banding (Figure 1). These are people Housewives with children of the internet. He called it the extension of who, if they’re not working late, are out consciousness, saying that this would include and about on the town. Children BARBSource: Admap propagates thought leadership in brand communications and is published monthly in print. To subscribe visit www.warc.com/myadmap

Timeshifting is also FIGURE 2: WHAT DO WE USE TV FOR? naturally influenced Average minutes per day Live & VOSDAL Breakdown of 28+ day timeshift and non-broadcast use of TVs, by programme genre. compared by age 1–7 day timeshift Drama scores most 40 minutes Games console 8–28 day timeshift highly, while it’s not TV Integrated tuner surprising to see that 5 minutes 28+ day timeshift and smart TV apps and non-broadcast well over 90% of Blu-ray, DVD/R, etc. viewing to sports, news, 22 minutes 60 minutes Virgin Media set weather and current top box (STB) affairs programmes takes 4 minutes Internet STB place live at the time of broadcast. 17 minutes Sky STB So if you are an YouView STB All aged 4+ upmarket adult working 16–24-year-olds in the South-East with Freeview STB children and a penchant for drama, 87% will be a Freesat STB 229 minutes 142 minutes surprising figure. Other satellite

All aged 4+ 16–24-year-olds 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% BARBSource: MY TV SCREEN IS ALWAYS BEING 2 USED FOR THINGS OTHER THAN expected, this shows that there are a myriad to do something other than watch live or WATCHING TELEVISION other uses – some you’d expect and some timeshifted television, 57% were using a Since Atari launched the home version slightly less predictable. games console or a Blu-ray/DVD player. of a computer game called Pong in 1975, Building on the previous point, live and This leaves an average 23 minutes a we’ve all been fairly comfortable with the timeshift television continue to dominate use day across all age groups (25 minutes for idea that the TV is not just for watching of the TV screen. During the period of our 16–24-year-olds) that will attract the most television programmes. To prove the analysis, people were watching live or catch- interest from those who believe we’re on the point, we’ve continued to plug all sorts of up for just under seven out of every eight verge of a new phase of television. Within this gizmos into our TV sets, a process that has hours when using their TV sets: that’s 86.4% screen-use time, some will be archived PVR gathered pace since the start of the digital of TV screen time being devoted to watching programming – things we’ve recorded more revolution. It’s still the assumption in some television programmes within four weeks of than 28 days previously. Equally, some of it will quarters that this steady accretion of kit will their appearance in a broadcast schedule. be accessing on-demand content from the eventually spell the end for television as a This leaves an average of just over 40 likes of All 4, BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub. And live, or near-live, communal experience. The minutes a day when the TV screen is being then there’s box-set viewing and pay-per-view latest theory is that the likes of Netflix and used for other activities. Digging further, we movies that are provided by the likes of Sky Amazon Video will soon govern an internet- can see that games consoles and Blu-ray/ Store or iTunes. connected TV world. DVD players dominate, accounting for a But some of this will also be people accessing TV apps that are distributed through smart TV integrated tuners and platform operators’ set-top boxes; this is “The further away you live from London, the where viewing to Netflix and Amazon Video less likely you are to timeshift your viewing” sits. We can’t yet be precise about the level of viewing to these subscription video-on- demand (SVOD) services, but given all the other sources of content in here, it’s going to Until recently, though, no one has had a combined 42% of the action (Figure 2). be a good deal less than 23 minutes a day. detailed fix on what we actually use our TVs Unsurprisingly to any parent, younger for when we’re not watching conventional people spend more TV screen time on other NETFLIX IS TAKING OVER; MY KIDS television. To plug this gap, we’ve been activities and are even more likely to be WATCH NOTHING ELSE able to apply new analytic techniques to using games consoles. Of the 60 minutes 3 Netflix is clearly a success story BARB panel data since December 2015. As a day that 16–24-year-olds are using a TV of recent years. Yet BARB data does not support some of the more dramatic rhetoric traditional television in favour of binge Broadly, we can see that online viewing emanating from Netflix HQ: SVOD services viewing on Netflix or Amazon Video. Less is clearly a phenomenon still in its infancy. are complementing rather than replacing than 50% of 16–24-year-olds have access to Towards the end of 2015, viewing via TV traditional linear television. an SVOD service, while only three in ten player apps hit a high point of 855 million BARB interviews over 53,000 people each children live in a household that subscribes minutes during one week; this is the sort year for our Establishment Survey; the results to Netflix. And we should remember that of number regularly attracting headlines for are vital to our understanding of the shifting these are claimed subscription levels, not online content. Yet putting this in context, landscape that we have to monitor. Among actual viewing or usage. people spent a grand total of 95.2 billion other things, the questionnaire covers the take-up of SVOD services that are delivered by new entrants in the television ecosystem. We can see the types of household that “Only 12% of TV player viewing actually takes subscribe and draw inferences about how place on a smartphone, while less than 10% viewers see their purchase of such a service. Of immediate interest when we look at takes place between 6 and 10 in the morning” the penetration of SVOD services by primary platform is the bias towards homes that already have pay TV services: Netflix and Amazon Video homes are significantly more IT’S ALL BEING WATCHED ON minutes watching television programmes on a likely than average to be YouView, cable or COMPUTERS AND TABLETS TV set during that same week. Sky subscription homes (Figure 3). So SVOD 4 THESE DAYS Clearly, app viewing will not be evenly homes are not swapping out their traditional BARB passed an important milestone in spread across the population, although a glance television for SVOD: they are using SVOD September 2015, when we launched in beta at the most-watched programmes tends to services to get even more of what they the first joint-industry, audited measure suggest that it won’t be clustered in entirely already have. on viewing to online TV. Since data started unexpected ways. Soap operas and dramas We also see that SVOD services appearing on a weekly basis, we have shed that perform well regularly also find their way are significantly more popular in larger light on aggregate viewing levels, the most into the top ten online television programmes. households with children. That said, the popular programmes, which devices are being App viewing, in other words, isn’t creating data does not support the commonly used and when people are using popular apps new and exotic programming tastes, although expressed view that an entire generation of such as All 4, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, Sky Go there are some interesting nuances. For young people have more or less abandoned and UKTV Play. example, reality TV shows Made in Chelsea and The Only Way Is Essex figure more prominently than they do in conventional ratings; this is a FIGURE 3: SVOD TAKE-UP BY PRIMARY TV PLATFORM reflection of these programmes having higher Q4 2015, % than average timeshifting audience levels. There 40% are also appearances from programmes that Any SVOD haven’t been broadcast as part of a traditional 35% Netflix linear schedule, such as BBC Three’s Cuckoo and Life and Death Row. 30% Amazon Some analysts have been predicting that Now TV 25% growth in TV player viewing is going to be driven by people watching on their phones 20% during rush hour. Yet there’s little evidence to suggest that’s actually happening. Only 15% 12% of TV player viewing actually takes place on a smartphone, while less than 10% takes 10% place between 6 and 10 in the morning. The only hint of something different is a 5% slight bump in viewing on tablets during the 0% morning rush hour. Terrestrial Other Terrestrial All Sky Freesat Cable YouView* Source: BARB Establishment SurveySource: There is more viewing during the only satellite * YouView includes BT TV and TalkTalk TV homes afternoon/evening rush hour, although the Admap propagates thought leadership in brand communications and is published monthly in print. To subscribe visit www.warc.com/myadmap

steady growth in viewing levels throughout 4.7% of UK households now FIGURE 4: TV PLAYER VIEWING BY TIME the day is more in keeping with traditional make do without a TV; in OF DAY AND DEVICE viewing patterns on the TV screen. That 2010, the comparable figures 32.3% said, rush hour audiences are nowhere were 900,000 homes, or 3.3% By time of day near what happens during the evenings and of UK households. at weekends: Saturday and Sunday are the One theory for this change 24.6% 24.8% most popular days for viewing while over is that non-TV households are 40% of all viewing takes place after 9 pm. online pioneers who are keen Interestingly, compared to conventional on television but prefer to use television viewing, the peak hours of viewing computer devices to access it. continue later into the night: a picture starts However, our Establishment to emerge of tablets replacing television Survey data challenges this idea 8.9% 9.3% screens as the preferred way of watching as those without TV sets are late-night TV in bed (Figure 4). generally less interested in all It’s well known that the Android operating things digital. Non-TV homes 6 am 10 am 5 pm 9 pm 1 am system dominates sales of smartphones and have a lower level of broadband –10 am –5 pm –9 pm –1 am –6 am tablets, although our data shows that Apple take-up and are significantly less devices dominate online TV viewing. Whether likely to own a tablet or a PC – BY DEVICE it’s the nature of the user experience or a the average number of computer/ tablet devices in a TV home is 2.9, Tablets which compares to 2.1 devices in Personal computers non-TV homes. “It’s not surprising to What is much clearer is that Smartphones non-TV homes are most likely see that well over to be younger singles or couples 90% of viewing to who are just setting up home. Forty-nine per cent of non- sports, news, weather TV households are defined as pre-family, i.e. with the head of and current affairs household aged between 16 and programmes takes 44 and no children. Only 14% of TV households are in this life place live at the time stage – a huge disparity. Non-TV households are also of broadcast” likely to be smaller: the average household size is 1.96 compared 6 am Midday 6 pm Midnight 6 am Source: BARB December (1 January 2015–31 2016) to 2.35 for households with reflection of the demographics who own TV sets. Forty-four per cent of non-TV seems to be growing; is this the harbinger devices from the different platforms, it’s households are single-person households of a gradual lessening of television’s hold on striking that far more online TV viewing compared to 31% of TV households, while, our attention? comes through Apple’s iOS platform (42.9%) unsurprisingly, non-TV households are It is far too early to draw such a than Android (10.1%). The balance is through half as likely to have children. Only 19% of conclusion when the number of households website browsers. households without TV sets include children without a TV hovers down around 5%, compared to 26% of households who have although the big question is whether today’s WHO NEEDS A TV ANY MORE? TV sets. pre-family homes will be able to continue For many years, it was widely assumed So the picture that emerges clearly is without a TV once they have children and 5 that pretty much every home in the that non-TV households are most likely move to the next cohort. This is clearly a UK had a TV. The reality is that there has to be younger, and either they have not trend to keep our eye on. always been a small part of the population got round to buying a TV or perhaps they that have been TV refuseniks, although the don’t find it easy to afford one. That said, it This article was first published in number of non-TV households is growing. is worth noting that the number of people Admap magazine July 2016 ©Warc BARB’s figures for Q4 2015 show 1.3m or who do not feel it is essential to have a TV www.warc.com/admap