A new report has found 59% of connected TV users begin their journey with broadcaster-produced content when they switch on TV.
RTL AdAlliance’s fourth edition of its annual study The New Life of the Living Room says as linear TV remains a preferred and trusted source for a wide range of content despite a blurring of lines of what defines TV. 51% of audiences and 8% Broadcast Video on Demand (BVOD).
14 European markets are covered by the report (including the new additions Poland, Switzerland and Austria) and the United States.
Most Europeans turn to broadcast TV for news (59%), sports (44%) and entertainment (44%), while SVOD is the top choice for movies and series (63%). European users trust the curation of broadcast TV, making it easy-to-find content. 40% of viewers need less than one minute to find content on linear TV.
Consumers are seamlessly switching between platforms, with 45% watching linear TV and 36% viewing SVOD daily. YouTube (30%) and BVOD (17%) experienced significant growth in daily usage, both rising by 6 percentage points. While US viewers lean more towards digital content (49% watch SVOD daily), European audiences tend to favour linear TV. Spanish viewers are the most loyal to linear TV with 61% watching daily.
Stéphane Coruble, CEO at RTL AdAlliance, said: “The smart TV remains the central hub for television and video entertainment with viewers defining TV by device, quality and long-form content rather than delivery method. Nonetheless, trust in traditional media is growing across Europe, reinforcing the enduring value of broadcast content, particularly as a trustworthy source of information and for locally produced premium programming. This mix of trust and quality sets the standard for selecting optimal TV advertising environments in so many different European markets.”
The fluid transition between platforms has also influenced how viewers define “watching TV”. For 52% of viewers, watching long-form content like sports or movies on a TV screen qualifies as “watching TV”, even when accessed through platforms like YouTube. Only 36% consider viewing similar content on mobile or desktop as “TV”. Meanwhile, just 22% of respondents regard viewing creator- and user-generated content on YouTube via a TV set as “watching TV”.
A particularly noteworthy result of The New Life of the Living Room study highlights the increasing trust in traditional media such as radio (67%), linear TV (66%), magazines/newspapers (64%), and BVOD (58%). Social media platforms lag significantly behind, with TikTok being the least trustworthy, trusted by only 23% of respondents.
Ads are perceived as less intrusive on traditional channels like linear TV (55%) compared to video-sharing platforms (61%) and a significant percentage of respondents (32%) regularly regrets wasting time by watching content on YouTube.
