Do you still watch TV? The results of a survey of more than 50,000 people are shocking...

Recently, a survey conducted by Fudan University over a period of nearly a year showed that the frequency and duration of television viewing among more than 50,000 respondents nationwide are seriously declining. However, the researchers are not pessimistic because the survey data also revealed a series of interesting phenomena brought about by media convergence.

1. More display, less viewing

The research report shows that the national IPTV users surveyed watch TV only 1.43 days a week; on TV viewing days, the average viewing time is 1.92 hours a day.

Professor Lu Ye, deputy director of the Information and Communication Research Center of Fudan University and the project team of "Survey on User Behavior and Lifestyle of New Media Video Platforms", told reporters that the reason for the "serious decline" is the comparison with the results of the national audience survey led by Professor Li Liangrong of Fudan University in 2010. At that time, the national audience watched TV almost every day, an average of 6.29 days a week; on TV viewing days, the average daily viewing time was 3.24 hours.

Despite this, among the traditional media (including newspapers, television, radio, and magazines), the frequency of use of television is still relatively high, and the other types rank behind television.

Although they watch less TV, these users have a wide variety of devices at home. 31.3% of the respondents have one regular TV at home, 39% have two regular TVs, and 16.3% have three or more regular TVs. Among all the respondents, 84.4% have one or more smart TVs, 75% have one or more 4K TVs, and 85.4% have one or more set-top boxes.

"Twenty years ago, TV was basically our main home entertainment device. Many young people's parents or grandparents may still be accustomed to covering the TV with a piece of red velvet, because it was once the most valuable thing in your living room, and you would have a special view of it." Lu Ye said, "But now, including TV terminals and other media devices, the extreme richness of access and the sharp decline in viewing frequency have formed a huge contrast."

Among the respondents in this study, male respondents accounted for 51.5%, the age range of the audience was 16 to 97 years old, 28% of the respondents had received college education or above, and the median monthly income was between 3,000 and 4,000 yuan. The survey was conducted by BesTV Network Television Technology Development Co., Ltd., covering 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country (except the Tibet Autonomous Region). The questionnaire was distributed through the website/local public account, Bestv App, and two ibestv push notifications. A total of 101,683 questionnaires were collected, 48,778 unqualified questionnaires were eliminated, and finally 52,905 valid questionnaires were adopted.

2. Small screen, big use

Television, which still maintains its leading position among traditional media, performs poorly when it comes to the Internet.

The survey shows that the audience spends 1.77 hours a day surfing the Internet on computers, and the most time on mobile phones is 2.7 hours. The study found that mobile phones have become the first media for respondents to obtain information and seek entertainment. After all, 75% of all respondents own smartphones. The most popular mobile phone brands are: Apple, Huawei, and Xiaomi.

What do people look at when they surf the Internet on their smartphones?

The study found that WeChat and mobile QQ are the most frequently used. Interestingly, when people open WeChat, the most used function is WeChat red envelopes; when they open QQ, the most used function is QQ group chat.

In this part of the measurement, respondents were first asked to report the frequency of using specific WeChat functions in the past three months on a 6-point scale (0 means never, 1 means very infrequently, and 5 means very frequently).

3. You browse your phone all day long. Which APP do you like best?

The performance of mobile phones is so eye-catching, so what are the things that people who are addicted to their phones browse all day long?

From the research results, we can see that shopping, photo and video shooting, game, news and video playback (non-live broadcast) apps are the most popular.

In the field of video viewing, TV is no longer their main source of video content. In addition to TV, they have a wide range of video reception channels. Compared with the linear TV broadcast in the past, the widespread use of photo and video shooting apps has given many people the opportunity to become producers of video content. The existence of the audience is no longer just "the audience friends in front of the TV" as the host said in the past. Producing content and disseminating it by oneself has become a common phenomenon in media convergence. In particular, the emergence of functions such as playback has almost become a subversion of traditional TV.

Want to know what APP most people use to watch videos?

According to Professor Shen Fei, a data expert from the project team and a professor at the City University of Hong Kong, the study found that the three most commonly used video playback apps are iQiyi, Tencent Video, and Youku. The three major video playback platforms compete with each other, bringing a variety of dramas and program resources to the audience.

Taking the data of popular TV dramas as an example, Chinese dramas and Hong Kong dramas are unsurprisingly the top two most popular types of dramas. However, for the third place, there is a huge difference in taste between men and women - women choose Korean dramas, while men prefer American dramas.

The frequency of watching each type of TV series was measured using a 5-point scale (1 means never watching, 5 means often watching).

Unlike traditional TV live streaming, live streaming is a form of entertainment that has grown rapidly based on the Internet live streaming platform, and its performance should not be underestimated. YY (YiYi), Inke, Meipai, and Quanmin Live are currently the most frequently watched live streaming platforms.

4. The more you surf the Internet, the more you stay at home? Not true

The more you surf the Internet and watch TV shows, the more you stay at home? Research has also broken our prejudice.

The project team paid special attention to the respondents' daily participation in social activities, and asked them about their participation in 13 kinds of social activities in the past year. The data showed that the three types of activities that most respondents participated in were: activities organized by the unit (such as spring outings, recuperation, chorus competitions, etc.), alumni/hometown association activities, and spontaneous mass cultural and sports activities (such as boxing and dancing together in the park, etc.).

The Pearson correlation analysis method was used to conduct a correlation analysis on the number of participants in these three types of daily activities and various media contact indicators. It was found that media contact has a certain impact on the participation in daily activities. Watching TV, using mobile phones and computers to surf the Internet have a positive prediction for cultural and leisure activities based on individual interests, but will cause a certain degree of obstruction to participation in activities based on organizations. In other words, the more newspapers, radio, and magazines the respondents read, the less they participate in daily cultural and leisure activities; while the more TV they watch and the longer they use computers and mobile phones to surf the Internet, the more they participate in daily cultural and leisure activities.

Lu Ye believes that the public today uses a multi-screen, socialized way of information and entertainment, which is very different from decades ago when television was almost the only form of entertainment: "How many of us watch the Spring Festival Gala on TV, computer or mobile phone while commenting on social platforms? Therefore, this kind of socialized overall entertainment method is our norm today, and it has also become a very important new starting point for us to understand audience behavior."

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.