The way in which the UK watches television is changing, with figures from Sky showing the rise of time-shift TV as the nation moves to PVRs and video on demand.
Nearly one in five people on Sky view time-shifted content through their Sky+ boxes, making it the most popular 'channel' on the platform.
TechRadar has got its hands on the latest statistics from Sky, and they show an increasing shift away from 'linear' television – viewing programmes live as they are broadcast.
Channel Me
More people watch their own personal 'channel' – made up of the content they have recorded and the Sky Anytime VOD content – more than any of the traditional channels, with 18 per cent watching time-shifted content.
This has caused a major change in the way that Sky looks at viewing figures.
Previously 'overnights' gave a view of what the most popular shows were, but Sky now tracks data 'well beyond' the traditional windows, with Sky+ and VOD increasing aggregate audiences for the shows.
Sky gives the example of popular US import Lost, which saw as many people (roughly 500,000) watch it through Sky+ as watched the original broadcast on a Sunday evening.
On top of that, another half million people watched the show through repeats, recordings of repeats, interactively through the red button or through Sky's online Sky Player VOD service.