Articles

17.11.2010 Simultaneous media use increases in UK

Simultaneous media use is increasing among UK consumers, as people combine activities like e-commerce and accessing social networks with watching television. Industry body Thinkbox and research firm Decipher assessed the attitudes and behaviour of 3,000 individuals from the "most digitally-enabled households", including qualitative analysis and tracking data. They also provided six families with the latest technology, such as web-connected TV sets and smartphones, to see if their habits changed.

Overall, the proportion of participants viewing TV content "on-demand" has grown from 64% in 2008 to 80% at present. More specifically, 89% of this activity was spent catching up on programmes respondents had missed, having scored 78% in 2008.
By contrast, the number of contributors discovering new shows via this route fell from 22% to 11% during the same period. Some 71% of adults had used the BBC iPlayer, and 39% the ITV Player, with both services posting 15% upticks on 2008.

Simultaneous media use is also gaining ground, as 60% of the sample claimed to surf the net and watch television concurrently at least two or three times each week, including 37% who do so every day. Meanwhile, 52% of the panel had engaged in e-commerce when viewing live TV and 44% browsed social networks.

Using Facebook through a "shared" TV screen was not considered attractive due to the site's "personal nature", with laptops and mobiles perceived to be preferable for this pastime and online chat. However, 37% of participants had discussed TV shows or ads on the internet, 19% had linked to TV content on social networks and 9% had joined a related group on Facebook.

B.L. 17.11.2010