EMERYVILLE, Calif.,
May 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --
Gracenote, a Nielsen company (NYSE: NLSN), and nScreenMedia, a
leading digital media analyst firm, today announced findings
from a new independent survey focusing on pay TV, free-to-air and
online TV viewership in major European countries. The study
titled, "TV Universe - U.K., Sweden, Germany: How People Watch Television
Today" offers the most current and holistic view of
consumption behavior and attitudes towards different TV
services and features in the three key markets which combined,
account for 31% of the European Union's total population according
to Statista.
The "TV Universe - U.K., Sweden, Germany: How People Watch Television Today"
report reveals that TV viewing has become a complicated undertaking
for European audiences who juggle multiple services to get all
the video content they want and access those services across
multiple devices. For instance, pay TV is currently the most
popular television source in the U.K. and Sweden with nearly two in three consumers in
each market using it. In Germany,
however, the most popular source is free-to-air TV which accounts
for the vast majority of viewers at nearly eight in ten.
A key finding of the research conducted in Q1 2019 was the
fast adoption rate of online TV. Across the board, online TV
is now the second most popular source behind pay TV with usage
ranging from just under 40% in Germany to more than 50% in the U.K. and
Sweden. This is a remarkable rise
as online TV is a relatively new offering. In fact, Netflix, the
original online streaming service, only launched in the U.K. in
2012. Whereas 12 years ago most homes relied on a single-source for
TV, today nearly half of viewers in all three of the countries
studied are multi-source television households.
In all three European markets surveyed, consumers pointed to
on-screen program guides and user interfaces (UIs) as being
critical tools for finding content to watch. Six in ten viewers
indicated visual imagery and TV artwork displayed in the guides
exert important influence on their viewing choices. Among the
18-to-24-year-old demographic, the number jumped up to around
90%. In addition, respondents indicated TV show and movie
descriptions which shed light on content are also factors in their
tune-in decision-making. 70% of U.K. viewers said the program
descriptions were at least somewhat important. 65% of Swedes and
57% of Germans thought the same.
Additional themes to emerge from the report were as follows:
- Free-to-air TV gaining traction on mobile: More
free-to-air viewers use broadcaster apps to supplement viewing than
pay TV viewers use their operator "TV Everywhere" apps. In fact,
over half of free-to-air users in each country use broadcaster
apps.
- The smart TV wins: The TV is the preferred device to
watch video content on in all three countries. A significant 70% of
total viewing time is on the TV screen in the U.K. and Germany, while in Sweden, the number clocks in at 60%. Samsung
is the most popular TV brand in all three countries.
"Consumer behavior relating to TV viewing is changing rapidly in
Europe as it is around the world,"
said Simon Adams, Chief Product
Officer, Gracenote. "This new research provides the clearest, most
timely snapshot of how viewers in the U.K., Germany and Sweden get the movies and TV programs they are
looking for and how they discover new content. By understanding
viewer needs, behaviors and attitudes, Gracenote is uniquely
positioned to help the industry develop new products and features
that maximize TV viewership and engagement – critical business
priorities in today's hotly competitive landscape."
The report also delves into viewing habits by market.
Among the most surprising insights:
- 17% of the U.K. study group use all three TV sources available
to them, higher than in Sweden and
Germany.
- While the on-screen guide is the dominant way Swedes and Brits
find content to watch, newspaper TV guides and channel flipping are
the main ways for Germans.
- 31% of Swedes consider online TV to be their primary TV source,
the highest of the three countries studied.
"The new TV Universe study shows that online TV has become the
second most popular source of TV entertainment in a remarkably
short period of time," said Colin
Dixon, Founder and Chief Analyst at nScreenMedia. "Also
telling is the fact that, though most online viewing takes place on
the television, consumers don't have the discovery tools they need
to efficiently find something to watch there. Features such as
voice and cross-service search are thinly used in each country.
There is also plenty of room for improvement with content
recommendations as a quarter or less think they accurately reflect
their interests."
The research was sponsored by Gracenote, the global leader in
entertainment metadata powering the world's top TV providers, music
services, CE device manufacturers, media companies and automakers.
The company's Global Video Data offering, comprising TV schedules,
program details and imagery covering movies and TV programming
worldwide, provides a foundation for on-screen TV/video guides and
UIs. In addition, Gracenote's recently announced Advanced Discovery
suite of hyper-detailed metadata is enabling smarter search and
discovery features for TV and OTT platforms.
The consumer research study conducted from February to
March 2019 surveyed 1,500 adult TV
viewers in the U.K. Germany and
Sweden. The data was weighted to
represent the general population of each country. Information
gathered from public and private sources, industry interviews and
other research sources was also used in the study.
The full report is available for free download now at
nScreenMedia.com.
About Gracenote
Gracenote, a Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN)
company, provides music, video and sports content and technologies
to the world's hottest entertainment products and brands. Gracenote
is the standard for music and video recognition and is supported by
the largest source of entertainment data, featuring descriptions of
more than 200 million tracks, TV listings for 85+ countries and
statistics from 4,500 sport leagues and competitions. Gracenote is
headquartered in Emeryville,
Calif. and supports customers around the globe. For more
information, visit www.gracenote.com.
View original content to download
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-consumer-research-reveals-increasing-usage-of-multiple-tv-sources-by-viewers-in-major-european-countries-300850302.html
SOURCE Gracenote