New report: Viewership loss for linear TV is accelerating

Swedes watched a total of 114 minutes per day on average on linear TV in the target group between the ages of 3 and 99 in 2022. This is a drop of just over 8 percent compared to the previous year.

In the broad commercial target group, 15-64-year-olds, the loss is 12 percent and among 24-34-year-olds 21 percent.

In 2022, TV4 overtook SVT1 in viewing time for the first time since 2008 and is now Sweden's largest television channel.

The viewing time in TV4 is 30 minutes per day, while in SVT1 it is 28 minutes per day in the target group of 3-99 year olds.

Opinions diverge

However, SVT's program director Jan Helin thinks that the measurement of viewing time alone gives a misleading picture.

- It is an old measurement from when the television world mainly consisted of a population that watched linear television.

But in terms of reach, SVT1 is greater, so more people watch SVT1 in an average week.

But those who watch TV4 watch longer, he tells Kulturnyheterna.

However, TV4's channel and content editor Fredrik Arefalk sees no problem with how the measurement was made.

- In the television world, the channels have always been compared based on the TV viewing time, so it is nothing new.

We are proud and happy to be Sweden's largest television channel and hope to be able to defend that position in the future as well, he tells Kulturnyheterna.

De-prioritises daytime television

One of the reasons why viewers prefer to watch TV4 longer, Helin believes, is that the channel has always been strong during the day with long broadcasts, for example "Nyhetsmorgon" and "Efter fem".

Something that SVT deprioritised in connection with more focus being placed on a move to SVT play.

- We put a lot of repeats during the day.

And that, I must admit, is not very effective because the faithful linear viewer has already seen it, so then they are happy to watch something else.

But it is a priority we need to make.

When it comes to television viewing via play services, this generally increases.

The number of hours spent increased by 7 percent on TV4 Play and by 2 percent on SVT Play.

The target group aged 3-99 spent 507 million hours on SVT Play and roughly 195 million hours on TV4 Play.