TV Watching: UK Adults Spend Third of Waking Hours In front of TV

UK adults spent, on average, a third of their waking hours watching TV in 2020, a trend accelerated by Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns.

UK communications regulator Ofcom published a report which showed the average adult’s viewing time had reached five hours and 40 minutes, fuelled by being stuck in the home and the rise of on demand services such as Netflix and Prime. That’s a 47-minute rise on the previous year.

The Media Nations Report also highlighted a doubling in estimated usage time of Netflix and Prime, with this increased inactivity doing the health of the country no favours at all.

“TV and online video have proved an important antidote to lockdown life, with people spending a third of their waking hours last year glued to screens for news and entertainment,” said Yih-Choung Teh, Ofcom’s group director of research.

“The pandemic undoubtedly turbo-charged viewing to streaming services, with three in five UK homes now signed up.”

The NHS encourages people to take part in physical activity in some form every day, with at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity per week.

It also suggests a person “reduce time spent sitting or lying down and break up long periods of not moving with some activity.”

The rise of TV watching is obviously detrimental to these aims, with the UK population now needing to reverse this trend and get more active as lockdown restrictions continue to ease.