LONDON, July 27 — According to an in-depth study of European viewing habits by IHS Markit, despite the advance of services like Netflix plus the growing trend for time-shift viewing — i.e., being able to cue up a show at any time after it’s aired via traditional means — viewers are still reluctant to let go of the traditional TV schedule.
On average, Italians watch more minutes of TV per day than any country in Western Europe, an impressive 280 minutes. What’s more, just 18 minutes of that total is non-linear (i.e., catch-up).
“Linear viewing remains king in Italy,” said Daniel Sutton, senior analyst at IHS Technology. “Pay TV on Demand is not gaining traction in the Italian market. Online long-form reached 46 seconds per-person per-day in 2015.”
The UK, considered a technological trendsetter when it comes to consumer behavior, is transitioning rapidly towards video content from a host of sources, but viewers are still finding time to watch broadcast programming, too.
In 2015, the British spent 187 minutes and 42 seconds watching TV. However, when all platforms and types of video content are factored in, British people are consuming 247 minutes of moving pictures daily. What’s more, over the past 12 months, subscriptions to video on demand services have grown by 30 per cent.
German viewers are also warming to newer ways of watching however, they are clearly taking things slowly. Germans watch 210 minutes of traditional TV per day. But long-form online video content is only watched on average for two minutes a day. “Online services such as Amazon Prime and Maxdome are growing in popularity in Germany, but are somewhat struggling to gain traction,” said Sutton.
The French are finding more time to catch up on programming. The average number of minutes per day has risen three minutes to 224 minutes per person and, according to IHS it is under-14s and over-50s that are driving this increase.
“We have also seen a large rise in non-linear viewing times in France over the past year, with television on-demand services from IPTV operators and short form video from the likes of Daily Motion leading the way,” Sutton said. In fact the popularity of non-linear viewing has jumped by 17.9 per cent representing 23 minutes and 54 seconds or 9.6 per cent of all time spent in front of a screen.
However, none of Europe’s big five countries has hit American levels of video consumption. Nielsen’s Q1 Total Audience Report, published in June shows that Americans currently spend five hours and four minutes (304 minutes) watching live or time-shifted television a day. — AFP-Relaxnews
