Linear took hit in 2021 as average viewer watched 362 mins of video per day, says Omdia

Cross platform viewing time by country 2021

The average TV viewer watched 362 minutes of video per day in 2021, according to a new study from Omdia.

As per Omdia’s new Cross-Platform Television Viewing Time Report – 2022,  the average viewing figure was down 0.5% from 2021. Linear TV viewing was down the most, but this was made up for by growth in online long form and social media video to mean that overall viewing dropped by just 2 minutes.

The largest contributing factor to the decline in linear viewing, the report said, was the removal of restrictions and lockdowns that marked most of 2020. While not explicitly mentioned by the report, it is also worth noting that the return of major sports events such as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Euro 2020 curbed a potentially even steeper decrease in viewing.

By contrast, online long form was a key area of growth across all markets, driven largely by incumbent online subscription services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+, and the launch of several new OTT services such as Discovery+ and Paramount+. In total, long-form viewing grew by 8 minutes, reaching 68 minutes, 8 minutes ahead of social media video viewing.

Time spent viewing video content on social media platforms increased by 9 minutes in 2021 to an average of 60 minutes per person per day across the nine markets analysed. TikTok was the standout performer for video growth during the year, with the platform set to overtake Facebook in total time spent for the first-time in 2022.

Rob Moyser, a senior analyst in Omdia’s TV and Online Video team said: “In highly developed markets such as the US and the UK, 2021 will likely be the last year where linear TV predominates over non-linear TV viewing. On a platform-by-platform level, however, linear TV still remains by some distance the most popular way to watch TV in the markets covered.”