Media convergence in the UK written by Iqra Butt, The Sydney Russell School.

According to my research the amount of teenagers, specifically 16-24 year olds watch an average of three hours of TV per day- the channel Freeview specifically is being watched for 224 minutes per day. However the number of people accessing streaming websites such as Netflix or Amazon is vast and surpasses the number of consumers who are watching ordinary TV. Approximatley 10.2 million consumers are either Netflix, Amazon or Now TV users with Amazon video having the strongest growth with an 11% increase. Netflix comes a close second with 9% growth meaning 8.1 million homes use it and Now Tv has just under 1.5 million users but is steadily progressing. Overall around 9.5 million people in the UK have a subscription to a streaming device which highlights the proliferation of hardware is massive and showcases Henry Jenkins’ transmedia experience as more and more consumers are accessing media through different devices. Specifically for Netflix, one of the most popular streaming websites in the UK, there has been a 25% rise in membership over the last two years. The stats also show that 77% of Netflix users like to bingewatch and around 40 million adults do it in the UK. However because many people are starting to realise the lack of sleep and general unhealthiness of this action 4% of adults have started to cancel their subscriptions; this is not only relevant for Netflix but for other steaming services as well. Furthermore, according to Offcom, children watch less TV per day compared to adults- this may be because of consumers spending more time on their smartphones. However a contradictory study has found out that 91% of teens watch 14 and a half hours of TV on a TV set per week. There has also been an increase of HD TVs being purchased from 7 million in 2010 to 46 million in 2017; as a result there has been a decrease in consumers going to the cinema as more people want to view media cinematically from their homes. This is an example of technological convergence as consumers can experience media through different technological ways.