TV bingeing ‘common in the UK’, says Deloitte research

Bingeing on TV programmes is common practise in the UK, with 24% of people polled in Deloitte’s Media Consumer 2014 survey claiming they prefer to watch several episodes at once than wait for the weekly broadcast.

According to the study, “bingeing predominates among younger viewers” with a third of 25 to 34 year olds watching TV in this way – marking an “ongoing shift in TV consumption behaviour.”

The report also said suggests that “pay TV’s relevance is diminishing” thanks to an array of additional content available through free or “relatively cheap” streaming services.

This was because, though all TV households in the UK have access to at least 50 channels, 72% of those surveyed say they regularly watched 10 or fewer channels.

Pay TV customers were also found to only watch an average of three more channels than those that pay just the compulsory TV license fee, despite being able to access “substantially more” channels.

However, in spite of this, ‘cord cutting’ was not seen as a major concern. Pay TV subscribers were 50% more likely than free-to-air homes to subscribe to an additional TV streaming service, said Deloitte, thus “thickening” the cord.

Meanwhile, “inertia” and access to service bundles were the main reasons given for why people continue to subscribe to pay TV services – rather than access to specific content.

“Pay TV has been a vital growth engine for the industry over the past decade. Subscriptions generated £5.4 billion of the £17.5 billion of revenues in the UK TV industry in 2012 (the most recent year for which statistics are available), up from £4.1 billion in 2007. By contrast, most other sources of revenues were little changed; for example TV advertising revenues were £3.7 billion in 2007 and £3.9 billion in 2012,” said Deloitte.

Elsewhere, the report found that 49% of households surveyed now own at least one smartphone, tablet or personal computer. Smartphones alone were found in 75% of households, up 10 percentage points on last year, and are “increasingly ubiquitous.”