‘Consumers are spending less, staying home’
Multiple consumption of media is increasing and consumers are tightening their belts and staying home more, according to the latest IPA TouchPoints survey.
The IPA’s fourth TouchPoints report reveals that although TV remains the dominant medium, reaching 98% of the adult population, people are watching 4% less TV than when the last survey was done in 2010. Average daily viewing time fell to 3 hours 30 minutes from 3 hours 41 minutes.
Consumption of outdoor media, radio and online media all increased as did the number of adults using two or more media in the same half hour, rising to 79% from 76% two years ago.
The number of people watching TV online has increased 96% since 2010. Just under a third (29%) of adults now watch TV online compared to 20% in 2010, which has helped broadcasters such as the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 increase their reach as they expand across additional digital platforms.
‘Double screen’ viewing is growing rapidly, according to the survey, with nearly half of all adults and three quarters of 15-24s surfing the internet on their laptop while watching TV.
Social media is also playing a growing part in TV viewing with 6% saying they like to chat online about programmes while watching. This increases to 17% of 15 to 14 year olds.
The most common way of accessing the internet is still via a PC or laptop (77%) but a more than a third (39%) of all adults and more than half (59%) of 15 to 24 year olds go online via mobile each week, up from 16 and 34%. Five percent go online via tablets and 6% through games consoles.
Listening to radio and podcasts online increased 23% and people visiting newspaper websites increased 15%.
Lynne Robinson, IPA research director, says: “The ways in which people live and consume media are changing due to the recession and the development of new technologies giving consumers more media channel choices and the ability to control when and how they consume media.”
The survey, which is carried out every two years, has expanded its coverage of digital media use, including mobile, mobile web, video on demand (VOD) and social networking as part of its look at consumers general life activities, mood and media use. It surveyed 5,567 adults in late 2011.
Other findings include:
Shopping trends:
The average amount of time spent shopping continues to fall reaching 29 minutes, down from 38 minutes in 2010 and 44 minutes in 2008, reflecting the squeeze on household budgets.
Only 1% of people say that they are using new ‘tap and go’ payment technologies each month, which shows that there is a way to go before these technologies become mainstream.
Each day consumers are:
- Watching 3 hours 30 minutes of television.
- Listening to 1 hour 54 minutes of radio.
- Accessing the internet for 1 hour 33 minutes.
Being connected:
- 44% of adults use social networks for an average of 6 hours 39 minutes.
- 42% of adults use only one device to access the internet.
- 29% use two, 8% use three and 2% use four or more devices.
- 39% of adults use a catch-up/on-demand TV service.
- 9% of adults use Twitter each week up from 4% in 2010.