Five million Brits spending full working day on streaming sites

With Netflix set to announce strong results today, new research from digital experience leader Acquia shows just how much Covid is catalysing the time we’re spending on our screens as we continue to navigate working from home and the pandemic. The research shows that up to 5 million people in the UK are currently watching seven or more hours of streaming video content (Netflix, YouTube, etc.) every day, equivalent to a full working day (minus lunch). 6.9 million are watching through their Smart TV.

The study was part of a broader look at consumer tech use during the pandemic. Over 4 million people (8 per cent of the UK) admit to using their phone for seven hours or more every day, while 6 percent of the UK population – the equivalent of 3.2m people across the country – are stuck on video calls for seven hours or more each day. Perhaps as a consequence of navigating months of the pandemic and so-called ‘Zoom Fatigue’, 12m people are avoiding video calls entirely. Furthermore, one in ten people are spending a full day on social media apps and websites. Extrapolating its survey of 1000 people with adult population data from ONS, Acquia’s research explored changing consumer behaviour online.

Tom Bianchi, Europe CMO at Acquia, said, “Clearly the surge in use of digital channels like Netflix caused by the pandemic must plateau at some point – but it looks like the changed behaviours might last beyond Covid. Expectations of digital are very high and businesses that fail to offer customers digital experiences that match what customers are used to will quickly fall behind.” Digital TV News