Tuesday 1 May 2012

Huge demand for on-demand TV in the UK Editor 
©RapidTVNews | 01-05-2012

 More research from YouGov has shown clearly the demand for alternative TV services, claiming that a quarter of Britons spend more time watching TV through on-demand services than they do watching traditional broadcast TV.
 YouGov revealed that the BBC iPlayer and YouTube are now staples of the TV landscape and that usage of on-demand is even more pronounced amongst people aged 18–24 years among whom 41% say the majority of the TV they watch is now on-demand. Building on its associated research into smart TV which found that only a third of connected TVs in the UK are bought for connectivity, YouGov also found that among such people, over a third of all viewers (35%) say that the majority of their TV viewing is on-demand, rising to over half (53%) of 18-24 year olds with a connected TV and half (51%) of owners with pre-school children.
 The survey also found that while nearly two-fifths (39%) of all viewers say they are watching more on-demand TV than they were a year ago, this increases dramatically to over one half (53%) of Smart TV owners.
 YouGov believes that there are clear positive business implications for such trends as the demand for on-demand is also extending to TV advertising - only 14% of people say they pay attention to ads on TV but this doubles to 29% amongst 18-24 year old connected TV owners.
 “These figures show that we are perhaps entering into a paradigm shift in the way that we consume Television – TV 2.0,” suggested Dan Brilot, YouGov’s Media Consulting Director. “Whilst we know (from industry sources such as BARB) that linear TV is still growing, alongside this we are observing a huge growth in on-demand consumption. TV 2.0 is all about consumers, rather than schedulers, deciding what to watch and when. Whilst linear TV is still at the core of most things that most people watch, the next generation who are growing up with the internet’s new mode of serving and searching content will increasingly focus their viewing attention to on-demand services.”