BBC Study Says TV Remains Supreme

In a worldwide study, BBC World News and BBC.com (Working with InSites Consulting) looked at news consumption. They found that the role tablets are playing in TV usage is an “international phenomenon.”

 

The survey, BBC says, polled some 3,600 consumers across Australia, Singapore, India, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Poland, Germany, France and the U.S. The findings included:

. 43% of tablet owners say they watch more TV now than they did five years ago, while 83% said they use tablets alongside TV

. 25-34 year-old professionals are the biggest “news enthusiasts”, but the

enthusiasm still puts TV first and other screens second.

. Across all demographics, 42% of news consumption is still happening on TV, followed by laptops (29%), smartphones (18%) and tablets (10%)

. TV is still the first screen users turn to in breaking news situations (42%), with the majority (66%) then turning to the Internet to investigate further.

. Users rated national and international news of most importance (84%, 82%) and local news at 79%.

. Next in importance to those surveyed was financial and business news (61%), sports (56%) and arts/entertainment (43%)

 

“Avid news consumers are hungry for information wherever they are and expect to stay in touch on all the devices they now own. There’s been speculation for years that mainstream uptake of smartphones, laptops and tablets will have a negative impact on television viewing, but this study has found that the four devices actually work well together, resulting in greater overall consumption rather than having a cannibalising effect,” said Jim Egan, CEO of BBC Global News Ltd, in a statement.

 

However, the BBC does has a vested interest in showing how well these services work together because it runs an extensive multi-screen operation.  The BBC says its “24-hour news and information channel is available in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide, and over 350 million households and 1.8 million hotel rooms. The channel’s content is also available on 151 cruise ships, 40 airlines and 23 mobile phone networks.” Maximizing advertising across that is a priority.

 

It’s also worth noting that the BBC and InSites only spoke to consumers that were deemed “high earners” and who already owned at least three of the devices in question: TV, smartphone, tablet and laptop. That effectively skews this survey and demonstrates that although there are some strong correlations, at this time, they are only true for a part of the population.