Media content is king

According to a new report by Ofcom, “the average Briton spends almost half their waking life using media and communications”. This illustrates the huge influx of new media technologies that have been made available over the last few years. With each one making demands on the consumer’s time, multitasking has become a necessity in order to keep up. The report shows that people consume nearly nine hours of media and communications by using several devices at once, with television being the device people dedicate the most time to.

One of the reasons that television has maintained its popularity is that the medium has responded to evolving consumer behaviour. Popular TV services such as VOD, combined with the emergence of connected portals delivering additional content, have ensured that the TV remains the central point for consumption of digital media in the home. And, this is a role that it will maintain as TV continues to evolve to include internet access and social media applications.

This desire for more than just broadcast TV is supported by the Ofcom research, which highlights that consumers want to access and consume an increasing amount of digital media from a range of devices.

Hybrid TV over 3DTV

A recent survey from Nielsen has shown that internet connected TV is a higher priority for consumers than 3DTV. 22 per cent of those asked said that they had a broadband-enabled TV set-top box (STB) or intended to buy one, whereas only 12 per cent own or have plans to purchase a 3DTV in the next year.

This demonstrates that consumers clearly have an appetite for on-demand services, that can be accessed through walled gardens and portals on Connected TV’s and set-top boxes.

That said, it’s important to remember that 3DTV is still in the early stages, with the first 3D TV sets only available recently. Sky has already shown some of its football matches in 3D this year and with an increasing number of blockbusters being filmed in 3D, it is likely that it will continue to rise in popularity. But is there enough 3D content available to satisfy demand? As the survey shows, it is the TV content not the TV technology that consumers crave.