50% of consumers watch TV + other device at the same time

According to a new survey almost half of the consumers in the UK, the US, Germany and France watch TV and look at another electronic device at the same time.

Multiple-screen viewing is becoming increasingly common, the author of the research, Futuresource Consulting comments. It polled 2,600 consumers, aged 12-65, on their digital devices use over the past six months.

Results point out that a serious number of people watch TV, while they are using their laptops or mobile devices to keep in touch with friends or to watch videos online. While the majority did so out of boredom, 10% claimed that using another device complemented TV viewing.

According to the study, almost three in five consumers watch videos online and a quarter of them use their smartphones for the same purpose at least sometimes. Although video watching on a PC remains the most common practice, it is now followed closely by laptops.

In all of the four countries that took part in the survey, online video watching has increased over the past six months. Currently, only 20% of the consumers say that they pay for watching video content and two-thirds of them pay for films. However, two in five of those who rely on free videos confirm that they consider using paid-for services in future.

UK consumers most frequently bought DVDs, more than one per month on average, whereas Blu-Rays were the top choice in the US.