More than 91% of UK adults tune into the main TV set at least once a week. But while the second set is in decline, half of adults (51%) now own a smartphone and one in four (24%) households has a tablet computer.
In releasing its annual Communications Market Report, regulator Ofcom says the growth of smartphones and tablets has created a nation of multitaskers. A quarter of the population regularly interact or communicate about the TV shows they are watching.
The 91% may be sat in front of the television – up from 88% in 2002 – but riven the amount of social media activity their attention span has to be questioned.
Tablet ownership has more than doubled in the past year, rising from 11% of homes to 24%. The average household now owns more than three types of internet enabled device, with one in five owning six or more.
A quarter (25%) are regularly ‘media meshing’ – doing something else but related to what they’re watching on TV. Examples of media meshing include talking on the phone (16%) or texting (17%) about what they’re watching, using social networks (11%) or ‘apps’ to communicate directly with programmes (3%). Younger people are most likely to use other media while watching TV (74%) with 44% media meshing.
The other major social phenomenon driven by digital devices is ‘media stacking’. Half (49%) of people use their smartphones and tablets for completely unrelated activities while watching TV every week – such as surfing the net (36%), social networking (22%) or online shopping (16%).
James Thickett, Ofcom’s Director of Research, said: “Our research shows that increasingly families are gathering in the living room to watch TV just as they were in the 1950s – but now delivered on bigger, wider and more sophisticated sets. Unlike the 1950s family, however, they are also doing their own thing. They are tweeting about a TV show, surfing the net or watching different content altogether on a tablet”.
The other noticeable trend is the number of people now reverting to having just one TV in their household – 41% of households in 2012 compared with 35% in 2002. In the first quarter of 2013, half (52%) of 5-15 year olds had a TV in their bedroom. This compares to seven in ten (69%) in 2007. And the proportion of UK adults viewing via the main TV set has increased from 88% in 2002 to 91% in 2012.
