26% Of Brits Say Majority Of TV Watched Is On Demand

The latest research on Smart TVs and their usage has found that 1 out of every 4 viewers in the UK watch most of their television using on-demand services rather than when the programmes are actually on. The revelation that 26 percent of viewers in Britain – or around one in four – preferred using on-demand video services like YouTube and BBC iPlayer instead of regular “linear” TV broadcasts came from YouGov’s new syndicated “Smart TV” tracker.

26% of Brits say majority of TV watched is on demand

Data from the market research firm also revealed that 41 percent of viewers aged between 18 and 24 said that most of the TV they watch is through an on-demand service, making usage in this age group the heaviest.

YouGov has more than 400,000 consumers from the United Kingdom on its proprietary panel. Every quarter the organisation’s new tracker looks at the usage patterns of 1000 internet-connected HDTV owners among these consumers.

Just over one third – 35 percent to be exact – Smart TV (defined as a television which doesn’t need any other devices to access the internet) owners said that “on demand” was their main method of watching TV according to the research. This went up to 51 percent for connected TV owners who have pre-school children, and increased to 53 percent for Smart TV viewers aged between 18 and 24 years.

Even though it is widely known that the use of linear TV is still on the up, these latest figures have shown that the consumption of on-demand services is now outgrowing that of regular linear services. YouGov advised media and brand owners to stop taking their business models for granted, as the strong growth of connected and Smart TVs can have a seriously disruptive impact on these models.