FUTURE TRENDS - More People Watch TV on Computers than Televisions

A new study, which surveyed 26,000 internet users worldwide, has reinforced the global shift from traditional media to digital.

The percentage of consumers who prefer watching TV shows on television sets plummeted by 55 percent over the past year, from 52 percent to 23 percent, according to findings from the Accenture 2017 Digital Consumer Survey.

More than four in 10 consumers (42 percent) said they would rather view TV shows on a laptop or desktop, up from 32 percent in last year’s survey.

Thirteen percent said they prefer watching TV shows on their smartphones, compared with 10 percent last year.

“The dominance of the TV set as the undisputed go-to entertainment device is ending,” said Gavin Mann, global managing director for Accenture’s broadcast business.

“While a great number of people still watch plenty of TV shows on TV sets, our research uncovers a rapid acceleration in their preference for viewing on other digital devices — especially laptops, desktops and smartphones.”

The decline in TV viewing over the past year tracks with a four-year trend.

As recently as 2014, the survey revealed that nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of consumers preferred the TV set for viewing TV shows.

The study also showed the smartphone is becoming the preferred device for watching short video clips.

More than one-third (41 percent) of consumers said they would rather view these clips on their mobile handsets, a substantial increase from 28 percent last year.

The report makes several recommendations for how media companies should respond to the shift in consumers’ video consumption habits from TV sets to other devices. These include:

• identifying new ways to engage consumers with more-personalized video content across more types of screens;
• using more granular consumer data, segments and predictive analytics to help anticipate consumer preferences and find content they desire; and
• focusing more on their target audiences to identify exactly what content their viewers want to receive – and when, for how long and on what type of screen.