World Cup Raises Average TV Consumption
New figures produced by the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB) has revealed that the World Cup in South Africa saw the average TV viewer watch an extra two hours a week and increased commercial impacts by 4.1% in the first six months of the year.
The figures, published by the television marketing body Thinkbox, show that people in the UK watched an average of 28 hours and 15 minutes of linear, broadcast television a week, from January to June 2010.
This represents an average of two hours and two minutes a week more than for the same period during 2009, with growth seen across every age group. It is also 9.1% higher than the five-year average viewing time for the period.
The increase in commercial viewing has also meant an increase in the number of television ads viewed.
Commercial impacts, or the number of ads watched at normal speed, during January to June, were up 4.1% on the same period last year, and have grown by 20.6% over the past five years to a new record high.
The average viewer watched 45 ads a day during the first half of the year, compared to 43 ads in the same period last year.
