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Barb Forecasts Boom in New Media

 Rise in mobile TV watching predicted

One in five British adults will watch 20-minutes of TV a day on their computers and mobile phones by 2010 according to industry research body Barb. New forms of TV viewing will grow including video on demand and PVRs.

 

Growth in using new forms of viewing TV - including TV over broadband and mobile - will rise by around 17% by 2015, according to the latest research from Barb. According to Barb's research manager, Simon Bolus, initial take-up of new ways of viewing television will be slow but that growth rates will increase rapidly in the long term as technological capability increases and becomes more efficient.

Barb estimates that by 2015, on average, adults will watch about 20-minutes of television a day through mobile handsets. Viewing over computers is also expected to increase rapidly with 17% of all adults watching, on average, around 20-minutes by 2010 with this rising to 40% by 2015. Time shift viewing, such as video-on-demand and PVRs - is also expected to rise.

According to Barb, time shift viewing accounted for just 2% of all viewing last year but by 2015 this is expected to rise to 20%. However, despite these new platforms for TV watching, Barb expects the overall amount of viewing to stay largely stable.