UK adults watch 50% more telly than they think

The Gadget Show  Tuesday 08 March 2011

So that's why there aren't enough hours in the day

Turns out we watch quite a bit more television than we think we do.

A new study by TV Licensing reveals the average adult in the UK watches around 30 hours of telly a week, but believes the figure to be closer to 20 hours, a discrepancy that amounts to more than 20 days a year.

The figure is rising among all age-groups, too – and that just covers our TV viewing on actual TV sets, never mind the other avenues at our disposal these days.

The typical UK home now has TVs in an average of 2.4 rooms, with seven out of 10 households having a TV in the bedroom – up from 57 per cent a decade ago.

The most watched TV event of all time remains the royal wedding between Charles and Diana back in 1981, when some 39 million of us tuned in. However, that looks set to be trumped in style by the forthcoming union of Prince William and Kate Middleton, an event expected to be watched by as many as three billion people worldwide.