On your marks, get set, go as Christmas TV gets boxed in
Catch-up and on-demand spark a sofa revolution
Once upon a Christmas past, the entire country was united as we slowly slumped onto sofas to watch Morecambe and Wise. No longer.
Streaming, recording and catchup has made the whole idea of watching TV programmes with everyone else as they are broadcast seem a little quaint.
The BBC’s Bodyguard was meant to buck the trend, though, after viewers tuned in on Sunday nights to ensure their enjoyment wasn’t ruined by other fans blurting out plot spoilers as the series twisted and turned.
However, the dominance of on-demand viewing, was only underlined last week when the BBC revealed the drama starring Richard Madden was the most-watched show on their iPlayer catch-up service last year.
Overall there were a total of 311 million requests for programmes. That’s up 8% on the same month last week and December is set to smash that figure as people have much more free time for viewing.
John Cook, professor of media at Glasgow Caledonian University, said: “Total ratings are down from the halcyon days because people are watching TV in so many different ways, including boxsets.
“I suspect Christmas Day will still be a time that families will watch things together live, maybe falling asleep on the couch after their dinner.”
Professor Cook says the days of 20-plus million tuning in to one television show are long gone and eight or nine million will be seen as a big hit now.
And while boxsets give a perfect way of watching again, or catching up with recent hits for the first time, in a way it’s nothing new.
“It’s like a continuation of the BBC’s old repeat trick of ‘another chance to see’,” said Professor Cook.