Viewers across the world are spending an increasing amount of time watching television, a new study has found.
According to the One Television Year in the World Report by Eurodata TV Worldwide, which monitors TV watching in more than 80 territories, the average daily viewing time across the world stood at three hours and 10 minutes per person a day, representing an increase of six minutes over the last five years.
“(The year) 2010 was a successful year, especially in Europe,” said Jacques Braun, vice-president of Eurodata TV Worldwide. “The inclusion of new modes of consumption in the measurement, global sports events and the development of multiple narrative universes via different media have all served to reinforce the power of television.”
Across all the territories covered by the study, Europe and North America registered the greatest increases in comparison with 2009, with an extra minutes for Europe to three hours 48 minutes, and an additional four minutes for North America to four hours 39 minutes.
The study found that with only two hours 34 minutes spent on average, the Asia-Pacific zone has considerable potential for growth driven by new behaviours and new technology.
Among these new behaviours, time-shifted viewing is helping to drive the increase in viewing time across the world, and audience measurement companies are increasingly taking this into account. In Belgium and Ireland, for example, where it was included in Eurodata’s measurement for the first time in 2010, daily viewing time grew by 10 and 11 minutes respectively when compared to 2009.
TV-watching boosters
The report found that big sporting events of 2010 boosted TV consumption across the world. In February 2010, during the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, the daily viewing time rose by 36 minutes in Canada and 22 minutes in Denmark, in comparison with February 2009.
The FIFA World Cup also reached new heights, notably in Spain where daily viewing time was 14 minutes higher in July 2010 in comparison with July 2009.
For the first time, entertainment came out on top among the genres most present in the top rankings, ahead of fiction. Entertainment represents on average 40pc of the 10 best audiences by country across 70 territories, against 39pc for fiction. Eurovision appears among the top rankings in 16 countries, followed by Got Talent in 12 countries, Strictly Come Dancing (nine countries) and The X Factor (six countries).
Article courtesy of Businessandleadership.com
