According to an IHS Markit (NASDAQ:INFO) study on TV viewing times in western Europe, Italy watches more TV than any other country in the region, at 4 hours and 40 minutes per person per day in 2015. Following Italy are Spain (3 hours, 54 minutes), France (3 hours, 44 minutes), Germany (3 hours, 30 minutes), and the UK (3 hours, 7 minutes).
Other findings indicate:
- Non-linear pickup has been swift in the UK, but a slow starter throughout the rest of Western Europe.
- The majority of viewing time is still tied to the broadcast schedule, be it live or through catchup.
- Online revenues in 2015 were just 3% of total TV revenues in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain combined.
In 2015, Italian non-linear viewing rose to 18 minutes per day while combined linear and non-linear broadcast content viewing stood at 271 minutes and 41 seconds per person per day.
"Linear viewing remains king in Italy," said Daniel Sutton, senior analyst at IHS Technology. "Similar to Germany, pay TV on demand is not gaining traction in the Italian market. Online long-form reached 46 seconds per-person per-day in 2015. As with pay TV video on demand, the dominance of transaction-based services can be pointed to as an inhibitor for growth in this area.
In Spain, the amount of time spent watching TV is actually declining. Linear TV viewing once again dropped sharply in comparison to prior years, falling to its lowest level since 2010 at 234 minutes per person per day. Non-linear viewing time has seen growth in Spain.
"We saw an increase of 22% on 2014's non-linear viewing time figures to 16 minutes and 26 seconds per person per day in 2016," Sutton said.
The largest portion of growth in non-linear viewing time in 2015 was from online short-form content, of which viewing increased by 20.8% on 2014 to 8 minutes and 49 seconds per person per day.
TV viewing time in France rose by three minutes in 2015, to a total of 224 minutes per person per day. The increase was driven by viewing times in two groups, the under-14s and over-50 age groups.
"We have also seen a large rise in non-linear viewing times in France over the past year, with television on-demand services from IPTV operators and short-form video from the likes of Daily Motion leading the way," Sutton said. Non-linear viewing time outpaced linear, increasing by 17.9% over 2015 to 23 minutes and 54 seconds per person per day. At 2015, this represented 9.6% of total viewing time.
Germany watches 210 minutes of traditional TV per person per day. Total TV market revenue increased 2.6% in 2015 to €16.8 billion, largely due to a €311.5 million increase in pay TV revenue.
"Online services such as Amazon Prime and Maxdome are growing in popularity in Germany, but are somewhat struggling to gain traction," Sutton said. Online long-form viewing in Germany increased by 30 seconds per person per day to reach 2 minutes in 2015.
"Over the coming months, it will be interesting to see how the German consumer responds to revised television on-demand offering of the new Sky Europe," Sutton said. "Sky Deutschland has historically not had the same success as its sister company in the UK."
In the UK, traditional TV viewing time has declined as online viewing has picked up. Total cross-platform viewing time returned to growth in 2015, with the average British person watching 247 minutes of video content per day across all platforms.
In the UK, linear TV remained the most popular mode of viewing in 2015, at 187 minutes and 42 seconds per person per day. However, the fall was less dramatic than in 2013 and 2014. Broadcast's share of total viewing has been in steady decline since 2005, having decreased from 99.8% in 2005. Despite this, over the same period, UK TV market revenues have displayed an upward trend. Total TV revenues at the end of 2015 stood at £13.9 billion, up from £10.3 billion in 2005.
Online long-form viewing time increased by 25.7% to 9 minutes and 24 seconds per person per day in 2015. This was against the backdrop of a growing online video sector. In 2014, subscription video on demand (SVOD) subscriptions and online video transactions grew by 30% and 12.7%, respectively. Total online revenues (inclusive of online movies, online TV and SVOD) increased 26.3% against 2014, driven by SVOD.