Did TV watching decline as our activities fragmented across the wide range of sources of entertainment and information?

 

Unusually in British TV, the most watched programme in 2008 was not a special episode of a drama serial, though it did involve two loveable, fictional characters.....made of plasticine. More in keeping with tradition it was indeed a Christmas Day programme that topped the ratings chart for the year with a total audience of 16.2m viewers (55% of the viewing audience) for the premiere showing of Wallace and Gromit’s A Matter of Loaf and Death.

 

And yet delving deeper into the audience for this programme gives us some interesting insights into the ways in which our viewing habits are changing.

 

13.7m of all who saw A Matter of Loaf and Death watched it live at 8.30pm, but this represents only 85% of the total audience. A further 0.9m watched it later that same day (VOSDAL) and a further 1.7m time shifted it to view later in that same week. Interestingly, based just on the live audience total, it was still the top rated programme of the year. However, it was closer in size to the final of Britain’s Got Talent which achieved a live audience of 13.0m with, due to the nature of its reliance on a live audience to vote for the winning act, a far smaller proportion of time shifted viewers (5% of its total audience) adding to its consolidated total.

 

Comparing the figures for A Matter of Loaf and Death with the total audience (reach) of 14.6m, also indicates that a fair proportion of those who watched in time shifted mode, also watched it more than once.

 

 

 

In many ways, it underlines the subtle ways in which viewing habits are changing in the face of technology and platforms which increasingly allow us to self schedule programmes at times which are more convenient for us to watch.

Two other facts from data for 2008 illustrate this further.

 

As a whole, viewing overall in the UK increased slightly from 3:37 minutes per head the previous year to 3:40 minutes per head in 2008.

 

In itself this was encouraging for broadcasters, producers and platform owners – the power of visual content to entertain, educate and inform seemingly remains as potent as ever.

 

But looking under the surface tells a slightly different story, with live viewing showing no change over the last three years, with ALL the increase coming from time shifted viewing. This highlights that viewers are increasingly taking into their own hands the day and time at which they choose to watch and self selecting their viewing choice outside the traditional restrictions of linear TV.

And of course, this is more prevalent in those homes with a PVR which enables them to easily record, timeshift and pause the programmes they really want to watch.

Underlining the changes in overall viewing, time spent watching channels in 2008 has also shown how viewers are increasingly looking for more choice beyond the traditional ‘one channel’ linear schedule model.

 

The UK channel to grow its audience the most in 2008, was Channel 4 + 1, the time-shifted later by one hour version of Channel 4. With a share of 0.7%, it almost made up for the loss of audience to the main channel (though not quite) and almost, but not quite equalled the share of viewing for Channel 4’s spin off channels, More 4 and Film 4. The biggest increases came from those slots with the largest overall share of viewing on the main channel – namely for The Simpsons and also for programmes shown at 8pm and 9pm.

 

So far in the UK, Channel 4 is the only terrestrial channel to have launched a ‘+1’ version, though similar viewing behaviours are apparent in viewing to other spin off channels. BBC3 for example, gains its largest regular audience from the nightly catch up version of Eastenders shown at 10pm and evidently, for some, a more convenient time to catch up with their favourite soap.

 

So, what for the future? Who were the winners in 2008 and who were the losers?

 

Evidently, the winners are those that have anticipated the changes in behaviour and kept step with changing viewing patterns, in some cases even leading the way with provision of +1 channels and On Demand options beyond delivery of the traditional linear schedule. In 2007, we learnt the power of entertainment events that drew the family together on a Saturday or Sunday night and provided an opportunity to enjoy the benefit of the newly purchased large screen TV. In 2008, habits have moved beyond the live, linear event into the power of flexible delivery and even beyond the TV to the PC (though by comparison the numbers viewing via broadband are still small).

 

Those broadcasters who recognise that, far from cannibalising viewing, additional opportunities to watch programmes results in incremental viewing, will be those who stay one step ahead and maintain their brand loyalty. Those who don’t and believe they can continue to attract viewers with a single linear transmission are those that haven’t looked in detail at the evidence......and should be prepared to be the losers in the future.