TV BINGEING BRITS CRAVING COMEDY GOLD AND GARDENING GUIDANCE DURING LOCKDOWN

• Research from TV manufacturer Hisense reveals Brits’ TV habits and hankerings during isolation period
• Touch of the Trotters and a taste of The Good Life high on Brits’ isolation wish lists
• Majority of UK households now have multiple TV sets
• TV sales up 60% across The UK during lockdown

 As the UK’s national Coronavirus lockdown is set to continue, research conducted by the world’s third largest TV manufacturer*, Hisense, has uncovered how our TV habits may be changing thanks to the stay-at-home measures.

As sales of TV sets soared by 60% during the week Boris Johnson announced the lockdown**, and news broke of Netflix receiving a whopping 16 million new signups since the start of the year***, bingeing on TV series’ has become our new favourite pastime.

In the last couple of months, a number of shows available on the streaming service have become viral sensations, and none more so than Tiger King, which came out comfortably ahead of the likes of Stranger Things and Too Hot To Handle. It’s no surprise that Hisense found that a quarter of Brits (23%) have already made their way through the bizarre world of Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin.

Tigers aside, the results also revealed that many of us are craving a good laugh during lockdown. More than two thirds (68%) of Brits regard ‘entertainment’ as the biggest influence for their TV viewing choices during lockdown, trumping other factors such as ‘motivation’ and ‘information about the pandemic’.

Despite ‘nostalgia’ not coming out on top as the biggest driver, it’s the classics that are still providing us with the laughs after all these years, with 4 in 5 (84%) respondents wanting to see British comedies Only Fools & Horses and Fawlty Towers back on our screens.

It seems the boom in garden isolation activities – from growing your own veg patch and tending to the flower beds, to starting a kitchen herb garden and baking your own bread – is also reflected in our TV comeback wishes, with a quarter (25%) of us wanting to pick up some tips from 1970s sitcom The Good Life.

With a huge 59% of us admitting to missing conversations that don’t involve the pandemic****, perhaps it’s no surprise that we’re reverting to the old favourites for comfort.

As families, couples and flatmates spend more time together than ever, the opportunity for arguments over who controls the remote are at a premium. But, as the survey reveals, this might not be such a concern for those in the North of England, with 75% of households now having at least two TV sets.

North of the border, those statistics are more remarkable as 45% of Scottish households possess a minimum of three TV sets, while a considerable 15% of Glaswegian homes have at least five tellies.

Arun Bhatoye, Senior Marketing Manager at Hisense, said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust us all into an unprecedented situation where we’re obviously spending more time at home than ever before. One of the consequences of this has been that we’ve spent more time in front of our TVs, so we thought it would be a good opportunity for Hisense to lift the lid on lockdown and reveal some of the collective behaviour we as Brits have shown during this time at home.

“Across the board, we’ve seen a big increase in TV sales since the onset of lockdown, and one of the things that’s been really apparent is that lots of people are buying additional, smaller sets for the home – presumably in order to avoid squabbles over the remote! Hopefully, TV has provided people with some entertainment and escapism during this strange time, but like everybody else, we’re hoping for a return to normal sooner rather than later.”

For more information about Hisense and to view the full range of products, please visit www.hisense.co.uk.