Digital growth boosts overall viewing for TV4

Swedish free and pay TV broadcaster TV4 say viewing on digital platforms double last year, more than compensating a modest decline in traditional linear TV consumption.

According to the broadcaster, traditional TV viewing declined by about six minutes a day to 153 minutes on average. However, consumption on digital platforms took the total average daily viewing time to over four hours.

TV4 cited MMS Web TV figures that it said showed the number of requests for TV4 Play increased from 115.1 million in 2013 to 135.2 million last year, higher than the figures for rivals Modern Times Group – up from 46.3 million to 81.5 million – and SBS Discovery – up from 29.5 million to 43.7 million – giving TV4 Play a 52% share of all requests.

TV4’s YouTube requests for the year numbered 127 million, taking total digital requests up from 131.4 million in 2013 to 262.3 million last year.

Public broadcaster SVT’s player service SVT Play is still the market leader, but requests for the service fell from 405.7 million in 2013 to 337.8 million this year.

In traditional viewing, TV4 Group claimed an audience share of 29.6% in the 12-59 age group, down from 30.4% in 2013 when it sold TV11 to SBS Discovery, while the share of SVT, MTG and SBS Discovery were all more or less flat year-on-year at 25.5%, 23.5% and 14.2% respectively.