Despite new tech and services, TV still dominates in UK

Last year, the average television viewer in the UK watched a total of 3 hours and 51 minutes of TV each day - 1% less than in 2014 but 5% more than in 2005. Of that, the vast majority was watched on a television set while just 4 minutes was watched on another device such as a laptop, tablet, or smarthphone.

Overall, TV - including live, playback or on-demand across all screens - had a 76% share of total video viewing in 2015 - down from 81% in 2014 - although Thinkbox points to an increase in the overall amount of video being watched.

However, the most dramatic viewing changes can be seen within the 16- to 24-year-old age group. They watched an average of two hours and 24 minutes a day of television in 2015, of which two hours and 14 minutes was on a TV set and 10 minutes was on other devices. The represents a decline of 7% on 2014 and 8% down on 2005.

According to Lindsay Clay, CEO at Thinkbox, "This makes sense as they do not tend to have control of the TV set and so turn to their personal screens to watch what they want."

Subscription video on demand services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime now take 4% of the viewing pie, up from 2.3% in 2014, most likely taking share from the DVD market.
YouTube alone accounts for 4.4% of video viewing and online 'adult' video also accounts for 4.4% of total video, down from 4.6% in 2014.

Image via Shutterstock

Tags: research, television, Thinkbox, UK, video trends