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Anonymous User
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Netflix, Amazon and NOW TV become more popular than pay-TV services

Interesting report from Ofcom this week on changing viewing habits and "cord cutting" in the UK.

Some headlines below or you can read more here: Media Nation's Report - TV streaming services overtake pay TV for first time

TV streaming services overtake pay TV for first time

"There has been a major shift in the UK’s viewing habits, with the number of UK subscriptions to television streaming services such as Netflix overtaking those to traditional pay-television for the first time.

Ofcom research also found spending by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 on new, UK-made TV programmes fell to a 20-year low. At the same time, people are spending less time watching television: average daily viewing on the television set fell by nine minutes in 2017 – and is down 38 minutes since 2012."

How people are watching TV

"The report also shows how increased take-up of superfast broadband and connected televisions is driving changes in how people watch TV.

Across all devices, the UK’s total television and audio-visual viewing in 2017 reached five hours and one minute per day.

The majority of this (three hours 33 minutes or 71%) was broadcast television, with the remainder (one hour 28 minutes or 29%) non-broadcast content such as YouTube and services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

However, viewers aged 16-34 watched more non-broadcast than broadcast content – an average of 2 hours 37 minutes a day (54%) across all devices, compared with 2 hours 11 minutes (46%)."

audiovisual-viewing

 As a parent of two under 12 I can confirm they will only watch the actual TV if I force them, so this trend will continue, at least in our house! Smiley Very Happy

 

15 REPLIES 15
Andy
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@Anonymous User Thanks for posting this, I always find these reports interesting reading, especially seeing the way trends are going and quite timely given Netflix's subscriber trends being in the news the last couple of days. I'll tag @DarylM as he's always interested in these reports. 

Anonymous User
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Glad to hear I'm not the only one that finds this stuff interesting. Smiley Wink

DarylM
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@Andy@Anonymous User  Thanks.  This stuff is always interesting to me.  I will have to peruse once I get some free time.



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Anonymous User
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Yep I can see why this is the case, really pleased with the new TV stick ( got two of them actually, they've gone up again now !) Roll on the Netflix and 1080p update.

ukbobboy
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@Anonymous User @Anonymous User @Andy

Guys

I can't speak for the stats presented or current trends but I can say that I now hardly watch any terrestrial TV, the only thing I regularly watch on normal TV is Judge Judy, the news and that's about it.

Apart from the World Cup 2018 that's just finished, I can't really say that I've watched anything else apart from YouTube, (some) Now TV and the odd catch up.

 

I tend to spend most of my time nowadays listening to my "old skool" music

 

UK Bob

Anonymous User
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I don't even watch the news. I read the BBC text pages or website to keep up to date. I did watch as much of the World Cup as I could and viewed quite a few of the games the Beeb presented in HLG HDR (so many letters nowadays).

My viewing is mostly NowTV and Netflix with some iplayer and ITV Hub+ (the paid version without the ads). I'll be recording Match of the Day / MotD2 when they return as I sometimes don't get to catch up with the weekend highlights until a Monday or Tuesday night. That's about the only 'normal tv' I watch with any regularity.

 

Anonymous User
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@Anonymous User wrote:

...I did watch as much of the World Cup as I could and viewed quite a few of the games the Beeb presented in HLG HDR (so many letters nowadays).

My viewing is mostly NowTV and Netflix with some iplayer and ITV Hub+ (the paid version without the ads)...


Out of interest, how did you find the UHD coverage?

I watched some games on my LG OLED in HLG HDR and thought it was a very good picture if a little darker than I am used to.

I also did a free 7 day trial of the ITV Hub+ to catch up on a series of Unforgotten on the Apple TV and the picture quality was superb. Much better than the normal ITV HD picture through an aerial on my Humax YouView box and slightly better than the one via my LG TV.

Mind you I find all of the terrestrial channels on my so called "top of the range" BT supplied 4K YouView box soft and a bit washed out.

Anonymous User
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@Anonymous User

I found the UHD picture to be exceptional on the earlier kick off day time games when the pitch was bathed in sunlight. On night time coverage or days where the sun wasn't as bright the picture was very dark indeed, and this is all on a fully calibrated Panasonic 2016 mid range tv. From my activity on other internet forums I would say that was the general view of others using the trials coverage.

I tend to favour Freesat over Youview for my terrestrial tv viewing. I fully agree with you re picture softness, this time on a BT supplied T2100 box. I use the BT box mainly for the sports channels or the BT Player. When the BT Sports app arrives onto NowTV I may change to viewing via it instead.

**re your T4000** One thing I've picked up from other forums when it comes to picture quality on the BT 4k boxes is how the resolution is handled. Setting the box to its maximum 4k resolution setting is great for sports and anything else in uhd, BUT, it is recommended to change your setting to 1080p for 'ordinary' tv channel viewing via a 4k box. Keeping the resolution at 2160p degrades the quality of non-uhd material. It's usually best to let your tv handle upscaling from any attached device as they would normally have better scalers than a box/stick etc. The only thing though is that you need to then change it back to 2160p if you're viewing uhd material via your device.

Anonymous User
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Thanks for the tip, I'll give that a try as I have a feeling my LG TV upscales everything anyway and the irony with BT is that I have the "Max HD" TV package, so they sent me a 4K box but my line isn't fast enough to support their UHD channel... Smiley Very Happy