Barwise switched on to TV trends
London Business School's Patrick Barwise has rejected the "deluded" belief that television viewers will abandon traditional TV channels over the few years in favour of on-demand content.
Barwise is emeritus professor of management and marketing at the School and chairman of the consumer organisation Which? He was speaking in a personal capacity at the annual Voice of the Listener and Viewer conference.
He presented evidence that, even in “converged” TV homes with both a broadband connection and a personal video recorder (PVR), 80% of viewing is still live TV and almost all the rest is of the same linear content on the same channels, time-shifted using the PVR or a catch-up service, such as the BBC iPlayer.
True video on demand (VoD), including video clips and on-demand TV and movies, still accounts for only 1-2% of viewing even for young adults, he said.
Barwise predicts that VoD will continue to grow but will remain an adjunct to main viewing, replacing DVD retail and rental and as a marketing tool for big companies - ranging from Apple and Google to BT – who make their money from other products and services
TV viewing, he argues, far from going out of favour, is increasing because people enjoy it. "My hunch is TV takes up enough mental effort to take your mind off other things, but not enough to take serious effort", so it's the perfect way to relax. It's also extremely good value for money," he said.
His full speech can be downloaded at www.vlv.org.uk/pages/documents/PatrickBarwisespeech24.11.10.pdf