Be honest. Keep a tally of how many minutes of TV you watch each day. Add it up. What’s the weekly total? And the more interesting question: Has this figure gone up or down over the last few years?
Chicken watching TV or TV watching chicken?
Everyone thought that the internet and social media would kill television, just as they thought that cinemas would become extinct with the arrival of the video recorder. But it hasn’t happened.
British viewers watched an average of three hours and 45 minutes of television a day in 2009, 3% more than in 2004, according to research published by the media regulator Ofcom. Here are some thoughts from John Plunkett:
TV continues to take centre stage in people’s evenings, boosted by the popularity of shows such as The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and Doctor Who.
Television’s popularity has also been boosted by digital video recorders (DVRs), now in 37% of households – and the introduction of high definition television, now in more than 5 million UK homes.
“Television still has a central role in our lives. We are watching more TV than at any time in the last five years,” said James Thickett, director of market research and market intelligence at Ofcom.
New technology offered viewers an enhanced, easy-to-use viewing experience, with 15% of all viewing time spent watching programmes recorded on to a DVR, he said.
“Unlike VHS, which was such a hassle to set up and record a programme that only a very small proportion of viewing was on video, DVRs give viewers the chance to watch the programmes they really want to watch. It is bringing people back into the living room.”
The UK’s ageing population has also pushed up the figures. Older people are likely to watch more television, with the average 65-year-old watching five hours and 14 minutes a day. And it’s to do with the increasing number of channels too:
Digital television passed the 90% threshold for the first time last year, with 92.1% of homes having digital TV by the first quarter of 2010. The average weekly reach of multichannel television exceeded that of the five main TV channels – BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – also for the first time in 2009.
“More people are getting access to a greater number of channels and that’s translating into greater number of viewing hours per person,” said Richard Broughton, a senior analyst at the audiovisual research company Screen Digest.
“Various people have predicted that the internet would kill off television but we have always said that TV would be here for a long time to come. It’s much harder for broadcasters and production companies to monetise content online, and there are all sorts of things that broadcast can do that online can’t, such as high definition.”
Broughton said viewers were using Facebook and Twitter while watching the television, rather than switching it off altogether. “In many cases television is complemented [by social media platforms] and not necessarily a direct competitor,” he added.
I was about to write that the beauty of cinema is that you are forced to give your attention to one image, and that you have to leave all your other digital distractions behind. But then I remembered a recent visit to the cinema when the guy in front of me was texting even after the film had begun. It breaks your heart…
I have to be honest, other than the odd series that grabs my attention usually because Ive been dragged and then stuck around because its great like Mad Men or Out Numbered or the odd film hired from the library, possibly the odd history documentary. I dont do the T.V. I do my writing on the p.c or read.
But Yes with many in the household it is on for most of the evening.
For me personally an average of two hours, if that weekly.
We had the same thing recently at the cinema. I found it really difficult as the guy texting was disturbing me with the light from his phone…
We don’t watch too much TV at all, the combination of iplayer and lovefilm (brilliant for old tv series as well as films) means that we watch maybe an hour max an evening to relax, and only things really worth watching.
A bigger problem for us is the time spent online, and how our electronic devices dominate our life (my fiance cannot leave his phone; he responds to it instantly – hence I found your earlier post very interesting too.)
I watch TV for probably two or three hours a week to see programmes I like to watch. These tend to be things I can just sit in front of the TV and be entertained by. Like Mags, our TV is on for most of the evening.
Your comments about the man in the cinema texting reminds me of your recent post about gadgets and how the writier you cited makes recommendations for not using technology when with others. I ithink that post and your reflection on your experience in the cinema just illustrates how our society has become multi-tasking mad. It seems that people now take second place to the demands of the gadget anback seat when our technology requires it to.
My only hope, Father Stephen, is that the man’s texting didn’t mar your enjoyment of the film beyond the time he was texting.
Radio 4 is my weakness, Good to hear you again on Sunday past by the way!