Stay at home and watch telly, trade bodies urge Brits
That's what your peers are doing, sheeple
In a desperate application of herd-mentality tactics, home entertainment trade organisations are once again trying to persuade us to buy more kit and content by telling us that's what almost everyone else is doing.
Today, for example, the British Video Association (BVA) highlighted an online survey conducted by pollster YouGov which reveals that half of us have invested heavily in HDTVs and such to "re-create that cinema at home experience".
But as soon as the spending cuts begin to bite, we'll all be entering "High Def Hibernation" seeking entertainment at home rather than elsewhere.
Not that this entirely good news for the purveyors of pre-recorded content who make up the BVA's membership. While 28 per cent of those surveyed said they had bought an HDTV during the past two years, 20 per cent a games console and 17 per cent a cable, satellite or HD service, only ten per cent have adopted Blu-ray Disc.
And only ten per cent claimed they were spending more time in front of all this kit because it's cheaper than going out. Which rather puts the bullet into the BVA's 'staycation' claim.
Freeview recently cited a YouGov survey of 2000-odd individuals - almost certainly the same one mentioned by the BVA - which gloomily forecasts hefty belt-tightening by Brits as they prepare to enter the new era of austerity. Though it could be because they've bought so much hardware in the past two years, as the BVA notes.
The digital TV marketing company spins this as a shift away from spend, spend, spend to a focus on the things in life that are free - like the free-to-air broadcasts it promotes.
Among the "most popular ways to save money" apparently highlighted by economising punters is watching "free TV channels instead of paying for subscription TV", though we note this comes in at number four in the list, well behind cooking at home, preparing your own lunch and not going to the pub as often.
Neither organisation notes that the damp, cold British winter might have something to do with the population's reluctance to go out. Or that a plan to spend less on new kit means that we won't be all buying all that 3D equipment the manufacturers have been trying to flog us this year. ®
COMMENTS
Smug?
I don't see much to be smug about in spending a fortune on a TV you never use.
Err ... Ms. Bee ...
Might want to wack Tony Smith upside the head ... he used the "sheeple" word ;-)
Austerity doesn't affect us all
but for those that are affected, surely downloading, I mean piracy, is another option to reduce costs :)
My TV is 22 years old...
That should give you an idea of how much I watch. Amazingly enough, it's a 21" Sony Trinitron (remember those?) so it's still pretty good. I get my "Top Gear", "Being Human" and MotoGP out of it, and some games on the HALO-box, so I'm happy.
Speaking of Top Gear, there's some shit US version coming out this weekend. Looks like the people they got to do it are about as amusing as 3 rocks in a box.
