How do you watch your TV?

With so many options for watching TV, how do you catch the latest episodes of your favourites series these days?

I’ve watched bits of TV on my gadgets for years. As soon as 256k broadband was hooked up to my home, I was streaming all sorts of broadcasts made available around the world. In the early days, you needed a plugin for this, a plugin for that and you’d be lucky to get a picture much bigger than a postage stamp. Did I mention the buffering?

Enough history, let’s talk about now. With broadband speeds in some areas (theoretically) capable of 4k, the technology landscape has changed significantly. It seems however that consumers are slower to adapt. Despite various on-line catchup offerings from major broadcasters, only 1.5% of viewing in 2013 took place on a mobile platform.

For us, tablet and phone viewing helps eliminate any arguments over what to watch. We can both enjoy different shows at the same time, just a couple of feet apart. We’re not completely anti-social, we still chat during the programmes and we do watch plenty on our TV as a couple. Personal viewing, as I’ve dubbed it, just enables us to catch more things without one of us ending up bored to tears!

HOWEVER…

With forced, lengthy and occasionally problematic advert blocks built into some TV apps, it’s easy to see why people just prefer to watch live on their TV sets or timeshift with a recorder. The quality of streaming apps is something I believe needs addressing for them to be accepted as a replacement.

The stream quality itself is another potential off-putting factor. Viewers are generally fed noticeably low quality versions of programmes in comparison to the sharp high-definition picture seen on their TV. It seems the broadband infrastructure has improved, but not widely enough for online streaming to truly compete with HD satellite/cable/Freeview on a pure quality level.

Let me know your thoughts on mobile viewing and tell me how you watch TV and why. Tweet @deanandsheena!

Dean