Page 64 - TAM Review 2019

Cotard Delusion:

A live TV Health Check

(This article is reproduced (with some changes) with thanks to

RTÉ Media Sales. It is based on an article by Jenny Legge from RTÉ
Audience Insights that was published in IMJ in August 2019)

How many times have we heard the sweeping diagnosis, “Live TV is

dead”? Often enough to cause some in the industry to refer to this
diagnosis as delusion, or Cotard’s Delusion!

As a cure we offer the following consultation: Live TV viewing

accounts for over two and a half hours of an adult’s time. Every.
Single. Day. That’s a lot longer than your lunch break, which we’re

sure isn’t dead; longer than your short hop flight to London, Paris

or Barcelona which we hope isn’t dead and significantly longer
than it takes to commute in and out of work-we hope!

Think WE’RE deluded?! Here comes the science bit… 9
1

Live TV viewing accounts for a big chunk of all AV viewing. We
know that it’s about 65% among Adults 15+ which equates to

approximately 152 minutes per adult every day!

This figure does of course vary among different channels and

different age groups-with younger viewers watching less live TV Review 20

than older. However, it is genre which really dictates levels of time-
shifting.

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