Viewers watched more TV in the first half of 2011, according to Thinkbox

UK viewers will see more non-live TV on personal video recorders, such as Sky + photo: Gareth Fuller/PA

The average amount of tv watched by UK viewers each day hit a new high in the first half of 2011, driven by factors including people see more live TV to avoid online spoilers.

Viewers also see multiple, non-live TV on personal video recorders, such as Sky +.

UK viewers notched up an average of four hours and three minutes a day in TV watching in the six months to the end of June, an increase of 51 seconds a day, year on year, according to a report published on Monday by TV marketing body Thinkbox.

Viewers were exposed to an average of 47 ads per day — up from 45 in the same period last year.

Thinkbox, using figures from TV audience measurement organisation Barb, said a number of factors had fuelled the increase in the parent view.

Factors include viewers watching more live TV to avoid spoilers from the spread of people tweeting, participating in Facebook groups or update their personal status and posting clips of shows on YouTube.

The same social media tools have helped to contribute to the growth of the view that audiences increasingly engage in "two screen" TV watching, participating in online discussions and comments on a laptop or handheld device while watching shows.

Other factors include the increasing diffusion of personal video recorders, such as Sky + and Freeview +, on-demand TV and innovations such as high definition, which has made tv view "more magnetic".

According to Barb, drew non-live "time-shifted" prove for 9% of the UK TV viewing in the first six months – up from 7.1% in the same period last year.

In households, own a PVR – 47% of the total – time move accounted for 14.7% of the total view, up from 13.7% in the same period last year.

Thinkbox believes, however, that four-hour-a-day mark could be top quantity of live TELEVISION people want to see.

"We have said for some time to linear TV viewing could not keep breaking records forever, and that may stabilize at some point," said Lindsey Clay, CEO of Thinkbox. "It appears that this is happening now. On-demand TV expand total TV by adding to this stable linear base. "

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