The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 7 August 2019 *** 7
Netflix and YouTube join top TV channels
Reports by Hannah Furness
ARTS CORRESPONDENT
THE four most popular television
channels in Britain now include You-
Tube and Netflix, an Ofcom report has
found, as the streaming giants eclipse
BBC Two and Channel 4 in a drastically
changing media landscape.
British adults now watch an average
of 34 minutes of YouTube and 18 min-
utes of Netflix a day, beaten only by
BBC One at 48 minutes and ITV at 37.
A study of young adults aged 18 to 34,
placed the two video services as the
most-watched viewing platforms, with
an hour and four minutes dedicated to
YouTube and 40 to Netflix per day. The
findings were reported in Ofcom’s sec-
ond annual Media Nations report,
which tracks viewing and listening
habits in Britain.
Nearly half of homes subscribe to TV
streaming services such as Netflix, Am-
azon Prime Video or Now TV, with av-
erage daily viewing of streaming
services rising seven minutes last year
to 26 minutes. Reporting “rapid shifts
in viewing habits”, the study found UK
subscriptions rose 25 per cent in 2018,
from 15.6 million to 19.1 million.
Calling the UK a “national of stream-
ers”, Ofcom found traditional television
is in decline despite British public ser-
vice broadcasters showing more than
100 times more original, UK-made
shows than global streaming rivals.
The figures will raise concerns about
the dominance of American shows,with industry leaders claiming that dis-
tinctive British programmes are an im-
portant part of national life.
“The pace of change in television
raises questions about how UK viewers
will be served in future,” the report
said. “Online content delivery and the
emergence of global video providers,
notably Netflix and YouTube, are driv-
ing fundamental shifts in viewing hab-
its and industry structures. The
internet is massively increasing the
choice available to UK viewers.”
Noting that the traditional broad-
casters still account for the majority of
viewing, it found people watch on av-
erage three hours 12 minutes of broad-
cast television in 2018: 49 minutes less
than in 2012.
Four in 10 viewers now say that
online video services are their
main way of watching tele-
vision and film, it said.“Change is not new to the television
sector,” the report said. “However, the
rate at which young audiences in par-
ticular are embracing new online video
services from global internet platforms
in place of linear services from incum-
bent UK-based broadcasters, including
the BBC and ITV, suggests the changes
may have a profound long-term impact
on viewing habits.”
Despite major moments, including
the World Cup, the royal wedding and
hit dramas like Bodyguard, BBC One
suffered a three-minute fall to 41 aver-
age daily minutes.
Ofcom said “a few popular drama
and entertainment programmes are
not enough to stem the overall decline
in broadcast TV viewing”, warning:
“To counteract the overall drop in
broadcast viewing since 2017,
about 34 additional series
of Bodyguard would needto have been broadcast in 2018.” More
than a million homes – a “small but
growing proportion” – do not have a
television set, the report found.
While YouTube consumption rose
slightly for under-34s at five more min-utes a day, the average increase for all
adults was six minutes, suggesting
“YouTube growth was as much among
over-34s as among younger people”.
The report comes after the BBC and
ITV announced that streaming sub-
scription service BritBox will launch
later this year, for £5.99 a month.
When it came to complaints, the un-
der-34s cared least about bad language,
but were twice as likely as those aged
55 and over to “have found a perceived
form of discrimination to be offensive”.
Yih-Choung Teh, strategy and re-
search director at Ofcom, said: “The
way we watch TV is changing faster
than ever. In the space of seven years,
streaming services have grown from
nothing to reach nearly half of British
homes. But traditional broadcasters
still have a vital role to play, producing
the kind of brilliant UK programmes
overseas tech giants struggle to match.”Video streaming giants
replace BBC Two and
Channel 4, transforming
the UK’s media landscape
Contact lenses that can take pictures may be a vision of the future
By Natasha Bernal
CONTACT lenses capable of recording
video and taking pictures could be-
come a reality, with Samsung having
been granted a patent in the US to de-
velop the technology.
The lenses feature a tiny display,
camera and motion so wearers could
control devices with their eye move-
ments such as blinking or using pe-
ripheral vision.
Users could still see normally, and be
fed information through images pro-
jected directly into their eyeballs.
The devices could replace smart
glasses such as Google Glass, which
was removed from sale in 2015 after re-
ports of poor image quality and being
branded the “worst product of all time”.
Google has since been quietly work-
ing on a redesign.
The advantage of a contact lens over
smart glasses is that images would be
significantly higher quality than those
transposed on to an external screen.This is not Samsung’s first foray into
augmented reality wearables.
The company applied for a patent for
a pair of smart glasses complete with
Bluetooth earpiece and screen-like dis-
play called Gear Blink in 2014, though
it has chosen to focus on its Gear VR
headsets in recent years.
It is not clear whether Samsung
plans to mass-produce this technology
following the US Patent and Trademark
Office clearance last month.
Devices such as the lenses couldhelp fuel demand for augmented real-
ity, which faced limitations in the past
because of cumbersome gear.
Technology giants have continued
to invest in it to tap into a market ex-
pected to reach $70 billion (£57.6 bil-
lion) by 2023, according to research
firm Mordor Intelligence.
Leo Gebbie, senior analyst at market
research company CCS Insight, said
that most of the growth in the market
was coming from businesses experi-
menting with the technology in areassuch as healthcare, training, education
and collaboration. He said: “If a heavy-
weight in consumer electronics like
Apple or Samsung gets behind smart
glasses, it could kick-start the market.
Our most optimistic scenario envisions
the global market for smart glasses to
exceed four million units in 2023.”
Facebook launched its Oculus Go
virtual reality headset last year, and
Apple and Google have both rolled out
augmented reality platforms for devel-
opers to create their own AR apps.Google has also filed a patent for em-
bedding miniature cameras into con-
tact lenses, an invention that could
enable blind people to navigate dan-
gerous situations, such as crossing a
road, more easily by relaying informa-
tion to a paired smartphone.
Earlier this year, Microsoft an-
nounced a second iteration of its
$3,500 HoloLens augmented reality
headset, which it is hoping will prove
popular with businesses around the
world.25m
The number of people who tuned in to
watch at least 15 minutes of the Duke and
Duchess of Sussex’s wedding last year90
Percentage of adults who listen to at least
five minutes of live radio every week. Four
out of five 15 to 24-year-olds tune inNews
Britons still love a major live TV moment Radio audiences survive digital onslaught
BRITAIN still comes together to watch
a major live television moment, the re-
port has found, with the royal wedding
the most-viewed broadcast.
Seven of the men’s football World
Cup games made it to the top 10 pro-
grammes of 2018, while the BBC’s Bod-
yguard was the most watched drama in
2018 with 14.3 million viewers tuning
in for the finale.
“Even with the decline in total TV
viewing minutes, national events in
2018, especially in sport, still attracted
huge audiences,” Ofcom said.
“Although football drew the largest
audiences, the most-viewed event
across all channels in 2018 was the
royal wedding on May 19. In total, it had
an average of 12 million individuals
watching it at any one time, an 85 per
cent share of viewing.”
Nearly 25 million people watched at
least 15 minutes of the wedding.
But, the report noted, “overall
numbers were lower than those watch-
ing the 2011 royal wedding” of Prince
William and Kate Middleton, which
saw 34.2 million – or 60 per cent
all individuals – tune in. British-madedramas Line of Duty, Bodyguard
and Killing Eve were particularly suc-
cessful for the BBC, while Love Island
accounted for half of all viewers on
ITV2.
Looking online, Friends, the US sit-
com which is now on Netflix, remained
the most popular show across stream-
ing services, followed by The Grand
Tour on Amazon.
Five of the top 20 titles originated in
the UK, including Peaky Blinders and
The Last Kingdom, which were both
BBC originals.
Meanwhile, appointment-to-view
television is still relevant, the report
found, with an average 112,000 British
viewers waking up to watch Game of
Thrones live at 2am on Sky Atlantic.RADIO listening figures are “holding
up” in the face of rapid digital change,
Ofcom has found, as it noted the rise of
podcasts and smart speakers was not
damaging traditional formats.
The report found live radio remains
popular, with nationwide commercial
stations “particularly strong”.
Nine in 10 adults still listen to at least
five minutes of live radio each week,
with even 15 to 24-year-olds tuning in
at a rate of 80 per cent.
Digital and online listening contin-
ues to grow, with DAB radio used by 67
per cent of adults, though local radio is
“gradually losing out” to UK-wide sta-
tions, with BBC regional services
largely the preserve of older listeners.
Those listening live via mobile phonehas fallen, possibly replaced by the in-
creased use of smart speakers – adopted
by 10 per cent of adults in 2018 and
19 per cent in 2019.
“The rapid take-up of smart speak-
ers is both an opportunity and a threat,”
the report said. “Twenty per cent of UK
households now own an Amazon Echo,
Google Home or Apple HomePod. The
most common use is to listen to musicvia a streaming service [69 per cent]
while 56 per cent listen to live radio
and 22 per cent to podcasts.”
It noted that difficulties could still
arise because Alexa owners needed to
ask their speakers for a radio station by
its precise name, predicting that “sta-
tion branding becomes more impor-
tant” if users wanted to avoid tuning in
to a similar-sounding but incorrect,
unwanted channel.
The report noted that “podcasts rep-
resent only a small share of listening
but are increasingly popular”, with one
in eight adults now tuning in to their
favourites.
The average age of podcast fans is 39- around a decade younger than the
typical radio listener.
Popular with television audiences Popular with those who prefer to stream
Game of Thrones The Grand Tour
Friends
Suits
Bodyguard
Love Island
00 times more original, UK made
hows than global streaming rivals.
The figures will raise concerns about
he dominance of American shows,Four in 10 viewers now say that
online video services are their r
main way of watching tele-
vision and film, it said.To counteract the overall drop in
broadcast viewing since 2017,
about 34 additional series
of Bodyguarddwould needgrowing proportion do not hav
television set, the report found.
While YouTube consumption
slightly for under-34s at five more mevision audiences Popular with those wh
TV
The Royal
Wedding
Minutes per person per dayYoutube
Netflix
ITV
BBC One
Prime Video
Channel 4
ITV 2
E
Channel 5
BBC TwoPopularity of channels
18-34 year olds All adults aged 18+0420 06080РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS