Web-based on demand services such as the BBC iPlayer, ITV.com and Sky Player appear to be incremental, rather than substituting for broadcast TV viewing. In its half-year review Thinkbox, the UK’s commercial TV marketing body, says despite the reported popularity of the new services broadcast audiences are holding up.
Figures from the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB) show that in the first six months of 2008 UK audiences watched 3.77 hours of broadcast TV daily. This is 2% more than the five-year average for the period.
Thinkbox says the figures demonstrate that broadcast and online platforms are growing simultaneously, underlining how the services fulfil different needs and can co-exist.
Joint research by Thinkbox and the Internet Advertising Bureau showed online services to be used primarily as a means to catch up with missed programmes. Further research has now been commissioned to examine how and why people use online TV, its relationship to broadcast TV and the advertising opportunities available.
