Binge TV viewing is no longer a budding trend but a fact of life for most consumers around the globe, Arris discovered in a Consumer Entertainment Index released last week that surveyed 10,500 consumers from 19 countries.
The Suwanee, Ga.-based broadbandtechnology vendor, which commissioned Vanson Bourne to conduct the study, said 80% of those surveyed admitted to binge viewing, with 14% doing it at least once a day. About 27% of consumers in Argentina and India said they got their binge on at least once a day — tops among the countries surveyed.
Among U.S. and Canadian consumers surveyed, 74% admitting to binge-viewing content, with one in four of those aged 25-to-34 year claiming to do it at least once a week.
Binge-viewing is watching multiple episodes of a TV program or film in one sitting.
The most binge-worthy device was the “standard” TV (47%), with smartphones and emerging 4K/Ultra HD TVs representing the other side of the spectrum, at just 6% each.
According to the study, 16% said they would pay for a service that let them immediately download or stream a completed TV series, while 21% would be willing to pay extra if that feature was tied to a service bundle.
Despite the pull of binge viewing, broadcast TV is far from dead, as the survey found that 96% of consumers watch at least one hour of broadcast.
In the U.S. and Canada, 93% of respondents said they watch broadcast TV programming each week, with 82% of survey respondents watching at least between one to five hours during that span.
