The highest rating programme last year was again the Late Late Toy Show and the second highest was the All Ireland Football Final between Dublin and Mayo. Interestingly the weather drove record daytime audiences as people turned to TV news to keep up with Storm Ophelia’s path. As a result, the One O’Clock RTE News came in at number 15.
The TAM Ireland/Nielsen figures show sport was once again a big winner, accounting for 11 of the top 20 programmes. Home produced programmes continued to dominate the top of the ratings chart across all channels. TV viewing continues to dominate our leisure time with the average Irish adult in a TV home watching for three hours 13 minutes every day.
The viewing of live TV – that is viewing it as it is scheduled – accounts for 89 per cent of all viewing time and just 11 per cent is time-shifted, using a personal video recorder (PVR) like Sky+, Virgin Horizon, VCR or DVD. Housekeepers and those aged over 55 were the heaviest viewers last year with the latter wacthing over four hours of TV each day.
Six in every 10 TV homes in Ireland now have a PVR, the increased choice and flexibility that this provides continues to make TV viewing dominate our spare time. TAM Ireland separately commissioned IPSOS MRBI to carry out a study of viewing on other devices in 2017. People claim to view A/V content for just under 4 hours per day – 3 hours and 55 mins.
Some 83 per cent of this viewing time is spent viewing on a TV set with 17 per cent viewing on other devices such as laptops, smartphones and tablets. The trend has remained relatively stable over the five years the study has been undertaken. In third place was the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup qualifier second leg game at the Aviva Stadium.
