Clear Digital Digest: turn on, tune in and check out

Today’s Clear Digital Digest reviews a recent Ofcom report about our changing TV and video viewing habits since lockdown.  We also take a look at changes in the ecommerce world, covering both shopper attitudes plus news from Amazon, Aldi and the mooted return of a familiar old retail brand, Comet… 

CHANGING VIEWING HABITS
Ofcom have just released their latest annual Media Nations research report, examining how we consume TV, video, radio and audio content.  This year’s events have unsurprisingly seen quite significant changes since March, so Ofcom have added two chapters to their report examining Covid-19 related trends.   Some key highlights from this are:

• Total amount time spent using a screen (for TV/online video/gaming etc) jumped by an hour and a half from an average of just under five hours during 2019 to just under six and a half hours in April 2019. 
• This increase was driven by more traditional live/broadcast TV well as Streaming Video on Demand (Netflix, Amazon etc) as we turned to familiar trusted sources such as the BBC and C4 for news updates as well as looking for Netflix escapism.

• Traditional live/broadcast TV still remains dominant in terms of total minutes watched, at just under 3 hours on average for live TV during April 2020, plus an additional 49 minutes of recorded and Broadcaster Video on Demand (BVoD): eg iPlayer, ITV Hub.
• This will vary greatly by age group however, with 16-34s only watching 75 minutes of live TV per day, but 2 hours of Streaming Video on Demand (SVoD).

• Looking beyond April, as the graph below shows broadcast TV viewing has started to fall, as our thirst for news slightly declined, lockdown eased and the daily media briefings ceased.
• However “umatched viewing” (when the TV set is on but it’s not possible to identify what it’s being used for – this will include SVoD, gaming, YouTube, DVDs etc) has remained at similar levels since its lockdown related jump in late March.

• This step change in SVoD growth has come from both totally new users, plus existing users taking on more services.  An estimated 12 million online adults took up a new SVoD subscription during lockdown, with around 3 million subscribing to one for the first time.
• And growth will have come across the board as some of these new SVoD users were in older age groups, who typically watch a lot more broadcast TV than younger people.  Almost a third (32%) of 55-64-year-olds used SVoD services in the early lockdown period, up from 25% pre-lockdown, while 15% of over-64s used them (up from 12%).
• Netflix remains the most popular SVoD platform with 43% of UK households subscribing, ahead of Amazon whose 35% is boosted by its video service forming part of its Prime service.
• New entrant Disney+, which only launched in March, is already the third biggest UK player, with 13% of households subscribing.

• Finally, the importance of news and traditional TV during the pandemic is further illustrated by its dominance of the list of most-watched programmes in the first half of 2020, accounting for all of the top five.
• The Prime Minister’s broadcast on 10 May attracted an average audience (those who watched live or on the same day) of more than 27.6 million viewers – a viewing share of almost 90%. This was across seven channels, including the relevant +1 channels.
• Overall viewing of this broadcast was slightly lower than the earlier 23 March lockdown announcement, which averaged 28 million viewers, but in terms of viewing on a single channel, 18.8 million watched the May broadcast on BBC One, making it the top programme of 2020 to date.
• All of this meant that the Prime Minister’s special addresses were the most-watched TV broadcasts since the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games.

CHANGING SHOPPING HABITS
As well as changing our viewing habits, Covid19 has also fundamentally changed our shopping habits with the well documented growth in online shopping.   eMarketer have taken a look at what these shifts may mean in the longer term.

• A McKinsey report has found that more UK adults expected their digital shopping habits for grocery and non-grocery to either increase or stay the same post-pandemic, compared with those who anticipated declines. 

• A recent Channel Advisor study found that 42% of UK digital buyers said they expect to shop more digitally post-pandemic compared to just 6% who expected to shop more in-store.
• However, there is a clear generational split, with those under 45 most likely to shift habits online, especially the 26-35 age group, of whom 59% expect to shop more digitally in future – and this from an age group that already buys heavily online.

​Looking at other ecommerce stories, a week never seems to go by without some significant Amazon news and the last seven days are no exception.

• It has been reported that Amazon are planning to open 10 of their check-out free Amazon Go stores in the UK, with talks also advancing for a further 20 after that.  The first site is thought to be opening in London later this year, with Notting Hill a likely location.
• And the concept of check-out free stores in the UK may become increasingly familiar, as Aldi has also announced that it is developing its own cashier free rival to Amazon Go.
• Some final ecommerce news is that Comet is set to make an unlikely comeback as an online only brand, nearly a decade after falling into administration.  As well as this possibly unexpected news, what was really surprising to me was that Comet disappeared in 2012, it certainly doesn’t seem that long ago…!

​AND FINALLY…
I did like the latest Marketoonist cartoon from the ever excellent Tom Fishburne…