HORSHAM, PA.— Motorola Mobility’s Fourth Annual Media Engagement Barometer reveals that consumers are watching more video, and the ways in which they watch it are changing. The study shows that, globally, the average consumer watches 19 hours of TV and six hours of movie content a week. Narrowed down to the United States, viewers watch 23 hours of TV and six hours of movies each week. Consumption in Sweden and Japan is lowest at 15 hours and two hours, respectively.
“This year’s study shows us that consumers take their viewing experiences very seriously. They want to be firmly in control of the way they experience their videos, but they’re frustrated,” John Burke, senior vice president and general manager, Converged Solutions at Motorola Mobility said. “Increasingly, they’re using tablets and smartphones to view their content, and they expect this experience to transition seamlessly across their favorite programs, whenever and wherever they like.”
The Media Engagement Barometer is an independent study of video consumption habits among 9,500 consumers in 17 countries. It examines new and emerging content trends, such as multiscreen habits and recording behaviors, which are shifting the way video is consumed.
The living room is the center of home entertainment consumption, but consumers are taking advantage of the ability to watch the content in multiple rooms. In Sweden (81 percent), the U.K. (75 percent) and Australia (68 percent), people watch broadcast TV in the master bedroom, and 35 percent do so globally. Argentina (62 percent), the United States (54 percent) and Russia (49 percent) report above-average consumption in the bedroom. Smartphones and tablets are watched more than broadcast TV in the bedroom (46 percent and 41 percent versus 36 percent), and are also less utilized in less-conventional rooms.
In general, tablet users watch more content on their own terms than non-tablet users. On average, tablet owners watch 6.7 hours of movies a week versus the average of 5.5 of non-tablet owners and are more likely than non-tablet owners to use a service provider’s TV catch-up service (47 percent versus 31 percent). 80 percent of a tablet user’s content is recorded, versus 65 percent.
Almost a third (29 percent) of weekly content consumed is recorded. But live viewing still dominates; 73 percent of news is viewed as it airs. DVR owners tend to watch an average of one hour more content a week, but 36 percent of recorded content is never viewed. In the United States, 41 percent is never consumed.
Many people (77 percent) record because there is other content airing simultaneously, which the viewer prefers live. Another 72 percent are recording to collect the box-set. Globally, 68 percent record to skip ads, 75 percent and 74 percent do so in the U.K. and United States, respectively.
Viewers also report that 68 percent have had to delete content, and 79 percent admit this caused frustration in their house. Women are more often frustrated than men by needing to remove recordings (26 percent versus 23).
Consumers across the globe are storing content on devices to watch away from home – but 76 percent would be interested in a service that automatically loaded content a user liked to his/her mobile phone or tablet.
Currently, 55 percent have downloaded or stored a TV program or film to at least one device; 73 percent of global respondents have a laptop, versus 60 percent and 26 percent who own smartphones or tablets. The majority of U.S. (71 percent), United Arab Emirates (79 percent) and Turkish (85 percent) respondents would be interested in this service. Consumers in France, U.K. and Germany are less so, with only 50 percent, 47 percent and 41 percent, respectively.
Fifty percent do not follow social media conversations about programming on a while watching a program, but younger audiences are more likely to do so – 60 percent of 16-24-year-olds follow social media as they watch. Nonetheless, the United Kingdom fell from 39 percent in 2010 to 24 percent following social media conversation online in 2012; the United States falls from 32 to 23 percent. Increases were seen in Turkey, 44 percent in 2010 to 55 percent in 2012; and in the U.A.E., rising from 60 percent to 64 percent
People are also more likely to use social media to recommend content than they are to make oral recommendations (38 percent versus 34 percent). The study shows 78 percent would be interested in linking their social network profile to a TV service.
The Media Engagement Barometer studies the video consumption habits of 9,500 consumers across the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, Russia, Turkey, United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, South Korea, Malaysia, India, Japan and China. The research was conducted by Vanson Bourne.
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