What you will find in the article:
- 18–34s lose 19 hours yearly rewatching missed TV while scrolling.
- 87% of viewers scroll on their phones during TV shows.
- Rewinding adds an average of 9.2 minutes to viewing sessions.
- 58% of viewers check online summaries for missed plot points.
- 23% have argued with someone over phone use while watching TV.
Almost nine in 10 (87 per cent) viewers admit to scrolling on their phone while the television is on, and almost eight in 10 (79 per cent) have fallen asleep before the end. Phone distraction now triggers a rewind on almost a quarter (23 per cent) of the occasions viewers sit down to watch something, rising to more than a third (35 per cent) in 18–34s.
The rewind button itself may be part of the problem. Half (50 per cent) of viewers say being able to pause and rewind live TV has changed how they watch, and nearly three in 10 (29 per cent) agree that knowing they can always go back means they don’t concentrate very hard the first time.
The ‘rewind effect’ adds an average of 9.2 minutes to a sitting, stretching a 45-minute drama into a 54-minute one, and across the UK it adds up to 7.9 million hours of repeat TV every week. Viewers lose nine hours a year overall, rising to 19 hours among 18–34s, falling to 10 hours among 35–54s, and to four hours among the over-55s. By generation, Gen Z lose 18 hours a year and millennials 17, while Gen X lose six hours and baby boomers three.
If today’s 18-year-olds kept up that rate for the rest of their lives, they would spend more than 50 days – around seven weeks solid – rewatching TV they missed the first time.
Rewinding is not the only way viewers catch up on what they missed: almost six in 10 (58 per cent) have looked up a plot summary, recap or explainer online. And, more than one in five (22 per cent) distracted viewers have missed all or part of a big television or sporting moment in the past two years. Harry Kane’s late World Cup goal against DR Congo and the Great British Bake Off final top the list, with almost one in 12 (8 per cent) missing each, ahead of the Celebrity Traitors final (6 per cent) and Chris McCausland’s Strictly routine with Dianne Buswell (5 per cent).[3]
Not everyone owns up. More than a quarter (27 per cent) have nodded along and pretended they knew exactly what happened rather than admit they had been on their phone or had fallen asleep, rising to almost half (48 per cent) of Gen Z. One in seven viewers (14 per cent) has done it more than once.
Phones and naps are causing rows on the sofa, too. Almost a quarter (23 per cent) have fallen out with someone over phone use or nodding off in front of the telly, rising to a third (34 per cent) of Gen Z. Partners bear the brunt, with one in seven viewers (14 per cent) having argued with their other half about it.
Max Beckett, Uswitch broadband expert, says: “We’ve all done it – you glance at your phone for a second, look up, and the ball is in the back of the net. Then you spend the rest of the night nodding along as though you saw the whole thing. There is no shame in it – the rewind button is the best thing to happen to telly since the remote control. But the ‘rewind effect’ means we have stopped watching things properly the first time, because we know we can always go back. Half of us say pause and rewind has changed how we watch, and that is a bigger shift than most of us have noticed.”
Source: advanced-television.com