
EIGHT IN TEN (78%) BUSY BRITS MULTITASK WHILE WATCHING TV Only a fifth (22%) of people settle down to the TV without interruption, reinforcing the rising media meshing' trend apparent in households today
A recent study undertaken by BT TV examined Britain's viewing habits, and has proved that we are a nation that cannot sit still. Eight in ten people are distracted by other forms of entertainment and everyday tasks such as responding to emails, reading, internet shopping and online dating.
Challenging some stereotypes around gender related habits, more women (29%) than men (20%) admitted to gaming whilst watching TV, with 13% of men claiming to do the ironing while watching the box. Nearly half the nation (47%) check emails while watching their favourite shows, with a quarter (24%) of 18-24 year olds checking work emails, ranking as the hardest working group of all.
The research has uncovered a nation of super savvy viewers, whose busy lives eat in to TV time', enforcing the need for flexible TV scheduling. Over half (51%) of respondents admitted that they don't have a specific time set aside to watch TV, with one in ten favouring pre-recorded content over live TV, recording the majority (90%) of their total viewing. Over 65s record nearly a third (30%) of their programming to watch at a later date, which is only 6% less than the 18 24 age group.
The need for personalised packages is obvious from further statistics uncovered by the study, which found that 65% of women prefer drama programming, compared to 50% of men, 38% of women prefer soap operas compared to just 18% of men. Typically, more men (33%) prefer sci-fi shows compared to women (22%).
BT TV features must have' HD movies, channels and sport and a free YouView box that lets you pause and record so you don't miss the TV you love.
BT's core Entertainment pack is just £7 month with BT Infinity which includes popular pay TV channels like Comedy Central, Discovery and Gold and access to Curzon Home Cinema and BT Box Office, with many films before Netflix and Lovefilm. You can also add Sky Movies, kids channels, HD or music completely flexibly just give 30 days' notice and you can cancel at any time. A perfect boost for rainy Sundays and long winter evenings.
Alex Green, director of TV for BT, said: We now offer over 100 TV channels, many with a fantastic HD quality experience, including BT Sport. But we know that people don't want to pay for loads of channels they don't watch so our kids, HD and movie bolt-ons allow customers to buy what they need, when they need it. We're also proud to offer the most catch up content of any TV service so no more schedule clashes.
-Ends-
Notes to editors *Research carried out across a nationally representative panel of 2.053 adults by ICM, October 2013
Not all lines in fibre enabled areas can support the BT Infinity service. Visit www.bt.com/infinity to see if your line can.
BT TV Entertainment:
£35 activation for new TV customers signing up for 12 months, pay £7 a month. You'll need a fast enough line, BT Infinity and a BT line. A 10m cable will be provided or you'll be charged £35 if an engineer install is needed. You'll get a YouView box (unless you're taking Sky Sports too) but if you stop your service in the first year we will charge you up to £299. You'll need to pay by Direct Debit. Availability of digital channels and quality of content depends on local transmitter and suitable rooftop aerial (www.freeview.co.uk/availability). We'll charge you for on demand content and HD/box office films not included in your bolt-on(s). Subject to availability. Bolt-ons: Available on a 1 month minimum term. Monthly charge of £3 Music on demand / £5 Film & TV Box Sets on demand / £3 HD Extra channels / £3 Kids Extra channels. HD on demand requires suitable HDMI cable, a HD ready TV and 5Mbps minimum line speed for streaming. Curzon Home Cinema: Offers selection of films for £10 each on same day as cinema release. Film can be viewed multiple times within 7 days of purchase. Terms apply.
Additional stats:
Top five most popular TV genres
Drama (58%)
Factual/Documentary (55%)
Comedy (50%)
Sport (31%)
Soaps (28%)
Top five favourite TV themes
Only Fools & Horses stands test of time, despite no new episodes being aired for 22 years, it gets twice as many votes as current favourite Downton Abbey
Only Fools and Horses (14%)
Friends (11%)
Downton Abbey (6%)
Strictly Come Dancing (4%)
Eastenders (3%)
Top five most popular film genres:
Action/thriller (55%)
Drama (50%)
Comedy (50%)
Sci-fi (33%)
Factual/Documentary (28%)
Mums' top five favourite film genres:
Action/thriller (50%)
Comedy (44%)
Drama (35%)
Horror (30%)
Rom Com (27%)
Dads' top five favourite film genres:
Action/thriller (68%)
Comedy (59%)
Sci fi (48%)
Drama (36%)
Factual/Documentary (29%)
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...