Dubbed ‘Generation i’ by some because of having so much technology at their fingertips and thousands of hours of TV available through on-demand services, 89 per cent of children’s viewing time is still devoted to live TV programming, according to a new report 

TV Licensing’s TeleScope 2014 report says children still rush home from school to make sure they catch their favourite television programmes as they are televised, despite a proliferation of different ways to watch TV and other digital gadgets to keep them entertained.

They spend two hours 23 minutes a day watching TV, an hour and a half less than the national average of three hours 55 minutes.

Even though almost half of all children aged five to 15 use a PC or tablet computer to watch TV – nearly all (98 per cent) spend time sitting in front of the ‘traditional’ living room TV set, reveals the report.

TeleScope 2014, which examines children’s viewing habits now and in the past, also outlines family research results, and has revealed the top children’s TV shows across the years.

In the South West, Blue Peter topped the poll of favourite children’s TV shows across the ages.

Grange Hill, one of the UK’s longest running children’s shows, came a close second, followed by Rag Tag and Bobtail, which featured as part of Watch with Mother in the 1950s and 1960s.

Top five children’s TV programmes in the South West:

  • 1 Blue Peter
  • 2 Grange Hill
  • 3 Rag, Tag & Bobtail
  • 4 Rainbow
  • 5 Thundercats

Richard Chapman, spokesman for TV Licensing in the South West, said: “Children’s TV – as well as wider family entertainment programming - continues to play a central role in South West households.

"The families we spoke to during our research for TeleScope 2014 had a wide variety of viewing habits, but all found TV programmes had the ability to bring the family together.

“Despite children having more devices and more ways in which to consume their favourite shows, it was also fascinating to see that the traditional TV set and live viewing are still the overwhelmingly the most favoured methods.

"With so many ways to watch TV, it’s important to remember a TV Licence is needed to watch programmes online via your computer, laptop or tablet as they’re being shown on TV.”

Telescope is an annual TV industry report produced by TV Licensing. It looks at the UK’s television viewing habits – identifying how viewers are responding to new technologies and how our habits are changing.

Insights from the past 12 months include:

• Viewers still prefer watching live seeing around of four hours of TV a day, with 90 per cent of all viewing being live. In 2013, fewer than two per cent of us watched only 'time-shifted' TV.

• Time travel and craft are favourites across the years: More than 2,000 adults were asked what their favourite programmes were when they were children and why. Perennial favourites Blue Peter and Doctor Who were two programmes which have stood the test of time.

• TVs are bigger: The trend towards buying bigger screens continues, with seven in ten sets sold classified as ‘big’ - between 26inch to 32inch - and jumbo screens - 43inch-plus - now accounting for nearly 16 per cent of sales.

• Tablet TV: Just over 55 per cent of owners of tablet computers such as Apple iPads, use their device for viewing video content such as TV programmes.