Analysis of television viewing data has found that broadcast TV viewing saw a significant fall in 2013 in the UK and US, as viewers switched to using on-demand services to time-shift and place-shift their viewing, according to IHS.
Changes in consumption habits signal a need for transformation in broadcaster and pay-TV operator strategies as competition for viewership increases.
Broadcast viewing sees its largest declines yet: Linear broadcast viewing saw the biggest decline yet in both the US and UK in 2013, falling well below historic figures for the first time. The UK and US saw average daily viewing time of broadcast content fall by 11 and 7 minutes respectively year-on-year. The two markets have seen a number of consecutive years of decline in linear TV viewing.
Non-traditional TV viewing now makes up nearly 1 in 5 TV minutes: Individuals in the UK and US spent 49 and 52 minutes each day watching ‘non-traditional’ (DVR or on-demand) television content in the UK and US. PVR time-shifted viewing continues to account for the largest proportion of non-traditional viewing, though much of the recent growth has been coming from on-demand.
Growth in Netflix prompts tripling of online video viewing in the US: Online long-form video consumption saw a threefold increase in the US over two years, with the average individual spending 9 minutes each day viewing TV content on devices other than the TV.
Subscription VoD eating into broadcast TV: Increases in non-linear viewing helped to stabilise total TV viewing time in the US, which saw marginal increases of an extra minute per day per person, just compensating for the decline in linear. While online long-from viewing increased by 6 minutes each day between 2011 and 2013, viewing on the TV set, both linear and non-linear, fell by 7 minutes each day. By year-end 2014, IHS forecasts that individuals will be spending more time watching on-demand content on connected devices than on pay-TV VoD services in the US.
PVR usage approaching its peak: Recorded minutes declined on a per PVR home basis in the UK, and stabilised in the US in 2013. Consumers are increasingly relying on catch-up and on-demand services for time-shifted viewing. This is occurring despite the huge growth in PVR ownership in the UK in the past year and reflects the fact that PVRs like the YouView box increasingly act as a platform for online video services.