TV is not what it used to be. Technology and differing work habits mean traditional programming blocks no longer suit consumers’ daily routines as they did in the 1960s. This issue was recently examined in a study by research firm Nielsen, which looked at eight countries in the region – namely Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand – and found that certain territories are beginning to see a marked difference in primetime viewership.
Official primetime viewing hours across all markets are between 18:00 and 23:00, except in Malaysia and South Korea, where official primetime hours start at 19:00 and close right on midnight.
On average, the most watched hour is between 20:00 and 21:00, where one third or 32 per cent of the region’s TV households are watching the box, while the least watched hour is between 18:00 and 19:00, where only an estimated 21 per cent are watching TV.
But looking at individual territory viewing patterns, the study found that primetime in South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia peaks later, compared to the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia, which share a slightly earlier primetime peak.
South Korea has the latest viewing peak of any country in this study, with 26 per cent watching TV in the final hour of its primetime, between 23:00 and 00:00. Taiwan and Malaysia closely follow, with nearly 30 per cent of all Taiwanese and an estimated 35 per cent of all Malaysians watching television between 21:00 and 22:00. However, a sizeable portion (25 per cent) of Malaysia’s audience continues to watch television right up to and past midnight. According to Nielsen, the country has the largest number of night owls in the region.
On the contrary, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia along with Australia and New Zealand seem to continue enjoying TV at a more traditional hour. Viewing patterns in these territories still peak between 20:00 to 21:00, with the largest percentage shared by Australia and New Zealand where 40 per cent on average watch television during this hour, followed closely by the Philippines with 39 per cent, Indonesia on 31 per cent and Thailand with 30 per cent.
Moving away from primetime, the study also revealed that a large number of Filipinos are watching TV during the day. More than one in five, or 22 per cent, watch TV between 12:00 and 14:00.
Commenting on the study, Dr Liew Kai Khiun from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University said these varying viewing peaks and troughs are also connected to the socio-economic status of each country. Despite the difference being only one hour apart, it is still nevertheless significant for understanding viewing patterns.
“The shifts from manufacturing to creative services and knowledge based economies by the late 1980s in newly industrialized economies like Korea, have created the phenomenon of a ‘24 hour’ society, based on the need to facilitate the constant delivery of more intangible services and flows of information around the world. As such, people are working not just later, but also separately at different times of the day,” said Dr Liew.
He also believed that the more competitive educational environments in these developed countries have led to an increasing number of students spending more time on “after-school tuition and extra classes that stretch into the evening”, thereby delaying the time one finally turns on the television.
Additionally, Dr Liew noted that in countries such as the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia, industrial manufacturing is still at the centre of these economies. He theorized that as such, their “workforce remains structured basically along a more rigid eight hour workday factory system, where operations would cease by 6pm and workers, many of them sole breadwinners, would return by 7pm”, allowing families to gather before the television at an earlier time.
Iris Wee, Head of Home Solutions and Content for Pay-TV operator StarHub, remarked that other than demographics, lifestyles and cultures, new technologies are another factor affecting today’s primetime landscape. “New services such as catch-up, VOD and mobile TV can provide viewers more convenient ways to watch cable TV programmes without the need to stick to primetime TV schedules”, she said.
Although primetime viewership might fall as a result, this does not necessarily mean overall viewership will as well. Wee added that these new services actually “help us capture more eyeballs as some customers may not be home to watch pay-TV channels during primetime”, thereby offsetting the loss of viewers who might otherwise have missed the original airing of a programme.
