MANILA, Philippines, 16 December 2015 – Filipinos are embracing both traditional and digital platforms as access points, indicating a rise in consumer control and choice when it comes to watching content. In examining the media landscape in the Philippines, performance management company, Nielsen, today shared that traditional TV viewing continues to enjoy its share of eyeballs while at the same time, digital video viewership among Filipinos has grown six fold in the last two years.

Nielsen’s TV Audience Measurement results show that in the last two years television viewership remain strong with Filipino viewers tuning in to their TV sets 33 hours per week while simultaneously, watching videos online among Filipinos who use the internet rose from 13% to 76%.

“There is a groundswell of consumer control and choice,” says Stuart Jamieson, managing director of Nielsen in the Philippines. “The proliferation of digital access points such as mobile devices and platforms such as video on demand and internet TV is working complimentarily with traditional TV broadcast. Consumers are hungry for content and they are consuming it from all points and in their own time.”

Nielsen’s study of consumer media behavior shows consumers are steadily watching traditional TV throughout the day, with its usual peak at evening prime time, while they access online video across the day and the late evening time slot.

“When it comes to watching content, old habits die hard. Consumers still prefer watching content through their TV sets but they are also appreciating the convenience that connected devices offer, particularly when they miss a show and want to catch up on it. This extends traditional TV’s content well beyond a particular time slot,” observes Jamieson.

Almost all digital consumers in the Philippines or 96% engage with two screens simultaneously, and as many as eight in 10 engage with three screens simultaneously. “The changing ways on how media is being consumed is creating a need for media owners and broadcasters to better understand and measure viewership across several platforms. More than ever it is to recognize and seize the opportunity for “right place – right time – right screen” tactics throughout the consumers’ journey across various channels, screens and platforms.”

To provide a metric that accurately and comprehensively covers viewership across different platforms, Nielsen is set to introduce its Total Audience strategy in 2016. The strategy involves the launch of its multiscreen advertising ratings measurement tool, Total Ad Ratings in the first quarter of 2016. Nielsen’s Total Ad Ratings solution combines advertising ratings across TV and computers, and provides a single reach metric. This will be done by fusing data from Nielsen TV ratings and Digital Ad Ratings – a historic first in the Philippines and in the region.