88% of UK TV viewing is live

January to June viewing figures for 2014 from the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB) and the UK TV broadcasters reveal that viewers in the UK watched an average of 3 hours, 47 minutes a day of TV. This breaks down as 3 hours, 43 minutes of linear TV on a TV set plus 4 minutes a day of TV watched on other devices, such as tablets, laptops and smartphones.

Commercial TV reach has remained stable over the last 5 years, reaching 72 per cent of the UK population in a day and 93 per cent in a week.

Other key statistics from the first half of the year include:
– People watch the majority of their TV live; 88 per cent of viewing on a TV set in H1 2014 was viewed live
– Commercial viewing dominates with a 65 per cent share
– Total commercial impacts were down by 4.3 per cent compared to the same period last year, meaning the average viewer saw 45 TV ads a day.
– Linear viewing and impacts are down in part because of the vastly improved weather and economy during Jan-Jun 2014 which have encouraged people out of their homes more and naturally lead to a little less linear TV being watched.