Update
TV breaks viewing records worldwide, as media multi-tasking takes hold
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The One Television Year in the World report by Eurodata TV Worldwide reveals that in 2010 television registered new records across the world, with viewers spending ever more time in front of a choice of screens.
In 2010, average daily viewing time around the  world stood at 3 hours and 10 minutes per person a day - an increase of six minutes over the last five year period. Across all the territories covered by the study, Europe and North America registered the greatest increases in comparison with 2009, with respectively +6 minutes for Europe (3 hours 48 minutes) and +4 minutes for North America (4 hours 39 minutes).
With only 2 hours 34 minutes on average, the Asia-Pacific zone has considerable potential for growth, driven by new behaviours and new technology.
Among these new behaviours, time-shifted viewing is helping to drive the increase in viewing time across the world, and audience measurement companies are progressively taking this into account. In Belgium and Ireland, for example, where this kind of viewing was included in audience measurement for the first time in 2010, daily viewing time grew by 10 and 11 minutes respectively when compared to 2009.
Content
In France, time-shifted viewing has been integrated into audience measurement since January 2011, and a further nine countries will follow suit by 2013, bringing the number of territories where it is included up to 23.
Of all the factors that influence the consumption of television, none is more important than content, says the report. The big sporting events of 2010 boosted TV consumption across the world. In  February 2010, during the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, daily viewing time rose by 36 minutes in Canada and 22 minutes in Denmark, in comparison with February 2009.
The FIFA World Cup also reached new heights, notably in Spain where daily viewing time was 14 minutes higher in July 2010 in comparison with July 2009. 13.4 million Spanish viewers  followed their team to victory in the final against the Netherlands on Telecinco (78% market share).
These excellent results were nonetheless dwarfed by the records recorded in China for the Germany v Argentina game, which was watched by nearly 55 million people in the country.
For the first time, entertainment comes out on top among the genres most present in the top rankings, ahead of fiction. Entertainment represents on average 40% of the 10 best audiences by country across 70 territories, against 39% for fiction. The combination of local talent and international formats makes a safe bet for broadcasters: Eurovision appears among the top rankings in 16 countries, followed by Got Talent in 12 countries, Strictly Come Dancing (9 countries) and X Factor (6 countries).
Explosion
Local and regional fictions are gaining more and more ground on US productions. Across the seventy territories studied, the major American series are becoming increasingly rare in the rankings, outside of the United States. Only House and The Mentalist feature in more than one national top 10. At the same time, Turkish series are proving huge hits in Eastern Europe - in particular Yaprak, Dokumu and Binbir Gece, which rank among the top few broadcasts of the year in Macedonia, Bulgaria and Croatia
The success of TV contents goes hand in hand with the explosion of the internet, especially among younger viewers. But if young adults (15-24), are using more and more screens, their time spent in front of the TV nonetheless continues to rise in comparison with 2009: 14 minutes more in the UK, 6 minutes in Germany and 5 minutes in the US. Children (4-14) are also spending ever more time in front of the small screen.
This multiplication of screens suggests a more or less simultaneous consumption of content and interactive media. This tendency to media multi-task is pushing producers and broadcasters to develop  different narrative universes, continuing the TV experience online and vice-versa. In the Netherlands, the bi-media measurement reveals the success of a complementary TV- Web strategy: the reality TV game Wie is de Mol, which is among the most watched programs of the year via online streaming, has seen its number of hits multiplied by 2.5 from 2009 and 2010. At the same time, audience figures for the 2010 season were 15% higher than that of the previous year.
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