Half of Holidaymakers Keep Up With TV When Abroad

Posted by Sue Anderson, 18th Jun 2013

Television can be addictive. Whether it be your regular soap fix, or a gripping new series, many of us end up living our lives by the television schedule. But what happens when we go on holiday? Eastenders still goes on, but we're not there to watch it. Sure we can record it, but if we're away for a week or two, that's a lot of episodes to catch up on.

One of the team in our office is a self-confessed soap addict and after a recent two week break, it wasn't just Eastenders that required catching up on. There was Emmerdale and Coronation Street as well, which soon topped up to several hours worth of television time. With new episodes emerging during the catch up period, it was almost getting out of hand. So that led us to look at just how many of us attempt to stay up to date with what's on the box to try and avoid such a scenario.

According to our study, where we questioned nearly 2000 people, it seems that half of us can't resist attempting to keep up on the latest programme developments when we're abroad, as 46% confessed to doing so.

The top five most common shows that Brits abroad tried to carry on watching were:

Soap operas - 42%

Reality TV - 31%

News - 22%

Sports - 17%

Dramas - 14%

The main methods for watching British shows claimed by respondents were by making sure that they booked accommodation with access to television channels, as 39% admitted to doing so. 13% said that they sought out venues such as cafes and restaurants that would be showing English TV and 24% said that they streamed programmes online.

The most common answer when questioned about the amount of time spent doing this, was one hour a day.

We appreciate a good television show in our office, but if it means an hour less spent on the beach or by the pool then we're not sure if it's worth the sacrifice. Even if it means a considerable amount of catch up time on your return, you're not on holiday for long. Although you might think that an hour a day isn't too much time, on a week's holiday that's effectively seven hours of your trip spent doing what you'd be doing at home. That's practically a whole day trip! We say see the sights and save the soaps for British time.
  • Inspire Me!
  • Compare Selected

Search the sunshine.co.uk website:

×