Adverts have the biggest influence on what we watch, with more than half of Brits (56%) saying it has the most influence on their viewing decisions, according to new research.
To mark Streaming Day on Saturday 20th May, Roku reveals key insights into the nation’s streaming habits including who we trust most when it comes to TV and movie recommendations.
The research shows:
- Adverts have the biggest influence on what we watch, with more than half of Brits (56%) saying it has the most influence on their viewing decisions
- Brits are twice as likely to follow the advice of their friends than partners, when it comes to streaming recommendations
- TV offers a valuable slice of “me time” with 40% of people saying that’s the main reason they watch TV alone, while 15% put it down to their partner refusing to watch the same show
Other findings include:
- Pals over partners: the threshold for trust is highest among friends. British consumers trusted their friends more than partners or significant others for movie and TV recommendations. Nearly 43% of Brits trusted friends and only 17% would trust a partner. Work colleagues are the least trusted source of advice with just 6% of Brits saying they would trust a movie or TV show recommendations most from someone they work with.
- Humour unites us: When it comes to movie and TV show recommendations, 58% of British people looked to those with a similar sense of humour versus 25% with the same political and economic social views, 15% who are from the same town or 12% of the same gender.
- Adverts reign supreme… even for millennials: 56 percent of respondents said adverts suggesting television content influenced what they watch. Even millennial respondents aged 18-34 were influenced primarily by adverts for programmes and movies (54%), closely followed by online news stories about shows (47%) and recommendations made on Facebook (46%). Twitter and Snapchat proved to have less influence on what people choose to watch, with 29% and 20% respectively saying these channels influence their decisions.
- TV shows are more commonly recommended than travel tips and restaurants: UK respondents were more open to sharing recommendations on TV shows (29%) and movies (27%) than restaurants (10%) or travel (8%).
- People value time alone: 40 percent of people said watching a movie or TV show provided valuable “me time”. Other reasons for watching alone included needing to focus on a TV show or movie (25%), while 15% say they have to watch it on their own because their significant other doesn’t want to watch it with them.
- “How You Doin?” and “D’oh!” come joint first in the UK’s favourite TV quotes: 22 percent of respondents chose the popular Friends quote as their favourite – 13 years after the final episode aired. Nostalgia continued to dominate with “D’oh!” from The Simpsons (22%). Meanwhile, X-Files’ catch phrase “The truth is out there” also proved to be a popular contender, with 13% of people saying it was their favourite quote.
- “May the Force be with you” ranks the #1 movie quote: 16 percent of British respondents chose this time-honoured Star Wars quote as their favorite, followed by “You talking to me?” from Taxi Driver (14%) and “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” from Gone with the Wind (11%).
With approximately two fifths of people (37%) using TV or movie quotes more than once a week in their day-to-day speech, Roku asked the British public what their favourite quotes of all time are, and the results are in.
- The UK’s Top 5 TV quotes (we can expand to Top 10 if of interest):
- “How you doin’?” — Friends (joint first)
- “D’oh!” – The Simpsons (joint first)
- “The truth is out there” — The X-Files
- “Winter is coming” — Game of Thrones
- “Live long and prosper” – Star Trek
- The UK’s Top 5 movie quotes (we can expand to Top 10 if of interest):
- “May the Force be with you” – Star Wars
- “You talking to me?” – Taxi Driver
- “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” – Gone with the Wind
- “The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club” – Fight Club
- “Why so serious?” – The Dark Knight
The average Briton spends more than 25 hours a week watching television, according to BARB[1]. Meanwhile streaming continues to soar as Roku users streamed 3+ billion hours of video and music in the first quarter of 2017 alone, up from 9+ billion in all of 2016.
“Consumers globally seem to be viewing more content than ever before,” said Abby Reyes, streaming expert at Roku. “Before the advent of streaming, viewing decisions were limited more by scheduling, locality and familiarity. Now, we trade recommendations with a vastly wider circle to help us find what to watch. Although we love our spouses, we’re not always in love with what they want to watch. Instead, we may look to those who have a similar sense of humor to help us choose our next movie or TV show.”
The Roku platform features more than 2,500 streaming channels and 100,000 movies and TV episodes.
Methodology
The survey was conducted online by Macro, Inc. using a Cint panel from April 24 to May 1 among a cross section of 2,673 adults aged 18-65 in the US, UK, Canada and Mexico.
[1] https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/facts