New numbers show that television viewing figures in 2011 have matched the previous high recorded in 2010. Research carried out by BARB, the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board, found that the average Briton watched just over four hours of TV each day, 90% of it at the time of the original broadcast, despite more and more channels offering on-demand television via the internet.
However, the amount of TV that was watched through services such as Sky+ and the BBC’s iPlayer had increased from 2010′s figure of 7.6% to 9.4% over the last 12 months.
According to Lindsey Clay, an analyst at the television industry’s marketing organisation, Thinkbox, this rise shows just why more and more channels across the UK are getting involved in TV on-demand. Clay added that better technology means people are now able to connect all the gadgets in their home, allowing them to watch internet broadcasts on their quality flat-screen TVs, rather than a low-definition computer monitor.
The BBC iPlayer service had its most successful year on ever, with over 180 million requests for programmes from subscribers using everything from internet-connected televisions in their homes to smartphones while they were out and about.
Their busiest day was the bank holiday on January 1, 2012 when there were almost 5.5 million broadcasts in just 24 hours. The popular comedy-drama Sherlock was the most popular individual show on iPlayer that day, with a massive 620,000 hits.
Top Gear’s annual festive special, which this year visited India, was the most popular programme during the Christmas period, with over 1.5 million iPlayer requests; a figure that was no doubt inflated by the controversy that surrounded the broadcast.
iPlayer’s 187 million programme requests in 2011 was a huge 29% increase on its performance in 2010, indicating that demand for on-demand TV, especially when it involves popular, quality programming, is here to stay and will only become more popular throughout 2012.
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