Multi-screening now mainstream, says ad sales bodies’ research

Using multiple screens at the same time and engaging with social media while watching TV is now mainstream across European markets, according to figures compiled by seven industry bodies.

According to the research, compiled by European commercial TV association ACT, international ad sales organisation EGTA, French ad sales organisation SNPTV, Dutch TV advertising and marketing group SPOT, UK commercial TV marketing body Thinkbox, German and Austrian ad sales organisation Wirkstoff TV and Belgian group ABMA for World Television Day, multi-screening, or engaging with multiple devices including TV at the same time, is becoming a mainstream activity in many countries, while TV is driving online commentary in social media.

The research cited by the seven groups found, among other things, that during peak time viewing in the UK, 74% of viewers claim to have picked up an internet connected device during TV ad breaks, with very little difference between age groups, social demographics or gender. Thinkbox’s found that TV plays a profound role within people’s homes and within the living room in particular, playing a vital role in unifying households and being a part of numerous day-to-day rituals. It found that 98% of TV viewing in the UK takes place on a TV set, with 86% on a TV set in the living room.

Research in the UK also found that multi-screening in ad breaks does not affect ad recall and that people who multi-screen during TV ad breaks are able to explicitly recall slightly just as many ads as the average viewer. Multi-screeners can recall two ads from the previous 15 minutes of viewing compared to the 1.9 average, the research by Craft and Thinkbox found.

The group also cited the stat that 42% of French viewers aged 15-60 say that they have engaged with a TV programme via a social network, according to Omnicom Media Group and Mesagraph. According to L’Argus de la presse, Ipsos-Steria and Aura Mundi, 8.5% of French people aged 15 and above claim to have commented on social media about a show they were watching live on TV. Younger people are the most likely to comment online, with 15% of 15-24s having commented about a show online on social networks. The research also found that 28% of French people say they have watched a TV show having read online comments about it.  This is particularly true for under-35s, for whom the proportion is 40%.

In Germany, 86% of all video touch points among adults 14-59 are with live linear television. The figure is similar for 14-20s, for whom 76% is linear TV, according to IP Fourscreen Touchpoints. In the Netherlands, 65% of the time spent watching TV is spent solely watching TV, without any other activity, according to SPOT, while in Spain, almost 30% of users of social platforms are posting comments at least once “from time to time” about advertising they are seeing on television, according to Televidente 2.0.