A third of television viewers now watch their favourite programmes online, on computers and mobile phones, according to new research. The joint study by the Radio Times and SeeSaw.com has highlighted changes in the way people now view programmes. A total of 34 per cent of those questioned said they watched TV shows on the […]
A third of television viewers now watch their favourite programmes online, on computers and mobile phones, according to new research. The joint study by the Radio Times and SeeSaw.com has highlighted changes in the way people now view programmes.
A total of 34 per cent of those questioned said they watched TV shows on the internet while for students the figure was even higher at 56 per cent, meaning more students are viewing programmes on their laptops than on television sets. Only 39 per cent of students said they watched programmes in the traditional way while more than half of those questioned over the age of 65 generation said they had watched a programme online in the past year.
01/09/2010
Ben Preston, the editor of Radio Times, which commissioned the survey, said: “The couch potato is dead, the age of the hunter-gatherer is nigh.
“Technology means television isn’t a passive activity any more. We hunt down what we want to watch, we gather up great shows we’ve missed and we chat and joke about what we’ve seen – whether friends and family are sitting next to us or are online thousands of miles away.”
The survey of 2,000 adults also found that viewers want to see more drama and documentaries rather than reality shows such as Big Brother.
It showed that nearly a third of viewers, 31 per cent, want more drama, while 30 per cent would prefer to see more documentaries.
Just 2 per cent of those polled said they wanted more celebrity content, and 3 per cent wanted further reality TV.
A total of 44 per cent said Big Brother was the show they were most likely to avoid, with the X Factor landing 6 per cent of the poll. Top Gear was named as the nation’s favourite show.
John Keeling, platform controller of online TV service SeeSaw, said: “Viewing across the board is in robust health but scratch the surface and a quiet revolution is taking place. Whilst the nation continues to watch fantastic shows like Doctor Who and Top Gear, a whole new generation of TV fans are enjoying these shows online.”
