• Average viewer watched 16.7 hours of commercial broadcast TV a week in first half of year
• 2.45 billion ads watched a day; 43 per viewer
• New TV technologies are magnetising viewing to the living room

London, 5 August 2008: Commercial broadcast TV viewing had a record first six months of 2009, according to new figures from the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB).

The average UK viewer is watching 16.7 hours of commercial broadcast TV a week, up 9.9 minutes a week on the record set in the same period last year. This is up 42 minutes a week on the representative five year average for January to June.

The figures, published in Thinkbox's Half Year Review, show that commercial TV accounted for 63.7% of total broadcast TV viewing in the first six months of the year, a growth of 3.2% in the last five years as the BBC's share has gradually diminished. Total broadcast TV viewing in the first half of the year was 26.2 hours a week, in line with the same period last year but up 18 minutes a week on the five year average for the period.

BARB figures only count domestic broadcast TV viewing and do not include viewing via online TV services or out of home. The continued strength of broadcast TV viewing - and commercial viewing in particular - is further proof that the growing popularity of on-demand online TV services, such as BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4OD, Demand Five and Sky Player, and IPTV services through platforms such as Virgin Media and BT Vision, is incremental to broadcast TV, not a substitute.

Tess Alps, Thinkbox's chief executive: "In January we said the record broadcast viewing levels set last year couldn't continue, but - astonishingly - they have.

"New TV technologies - like digital television recorders and high definition TVs - and the variety of great content available are helping to make TV an even better experience. They are magnetising our viewing to the attractive screens in our living rooms. And online TV services are proving the perfect complement to broadcast TV as they lead viewers back into the broadcast stream."

The increase in commercial viewing has also meant an increase in the number of ads people watch. Commercial impacts in the first half of the year - the number of ads watched at normal speed - were up 2% on same period last year and 16% over the last five years with the average viewer watching 43 ads a day. Every key advertiser audience experienced an increase in commercial impacts. ABC1s watched 3.2% more TV ads, 16-34s watched 2.5% more, and men watched 3.3% more ads.

Tess Alps: "Record viewing is of course great for advertisers and the smartest are taking advantage of this, running longer time-lengths than normal, adding bursts or bringing smaller brands onto TV. TV advertising creates more profit than any other medium and people spend more time with TV than with any other medium. The strength and popularity of commercial TV are beyond dispute and advertisers can reap the benefits from investing in a growing medium that offers proven effectiveness and increasing value."

Reasons behind the strength of linear broadcast TV include:

• Digital Television Recorders: counter-intuitively, owning a DTR results in watching more TV and more ads. People watch 17% more TV after they get Sky+ and 2% more ads (source: Skyview). DTRs are estimated to now be in 34% of UK homes. Timeshifted viewing represents 5% of all viewing.
• Digital broadcast TV: 89.2% of households now have digital TV, creating new audiences for more channels and increasing commercial TV's share of TV viewing.
• Online TV: on-demand online TV is keeping people in the broadcast schedules. 78% of people watch online TV mainly to catch- or keep-up with missed broadcast TV (source: Work Research/Thinkbox).
• Compelling programming: commercial TV scooped 13 of the 23 BAFTAs earlier this year, including those for Actor, Actress, Entertainment Performance, Comedy Performance, Continuing Drama, News and Sport.
• Economic downturn: people may be staying in more and taking advantage of the free entertainment.

TV advertising is proven to be the most effective advertising medium. Among the evidence are several major impartial studies into advertising payback over the last 18 months:

• PricewaterhouseCoopers, in two studies a year apart, proved that TV advertising delivers more incremental business for brands per pound spent than any other medium and that higher brand values are strongly correlated with above average use of TV.
• The IPA's book 'Marketing in the Era of Accountability', an analysis of 880 IPA Effectiveness Awards case studies from the last 27 years, found that campaigns using TV significantly outperform those that do not and concluded that TV is becoming more effective over time.
• An analysis by Data2Decisions that showed a year off TV takes a brand 5 years to recover from.
• More anecdotally, 22 of the 23 IPA Effectiveness Award winning campaigns last year had TV at their heart.

-ends-

Press contact: Simon Tunstill | simon.tunstill@thinkbox.tv | 020 7630 2326

Notes to editors
An ad must be viewed at normal speed to register as a commercial impact.  The figures quoted are for 30" weighted impacts which is the industry norm.

About Thinkbox
Thinkbox is the television marketing body for the main UK commercial broadcasters - Channel 4, Five, GMTV, ITV, Sky Media, Turner Media Innovations and Viacom Brand Solutions. It works with the UK marketing community with a single ambition: to help customers get the best out of television. Thinkbox was launched in February 2005.

TV today has more to offer advertisers than ever before, not least because this growing medium remains at the heart of popular culture and advertising effectiveness. From understanding how audiences engage with TV advertising, explaining innovative and affordable solutions, to providing the rigorous proof of effectiveness that advertisers need, Thinkbox is here to help customers meet their marketing objectives.

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