Despite the new clear trend of multi-screening, television still remains the primary screen in Europe, according to new research.

To mark World Television Day today (21 November), TV organisations from around Europe have brought together the latest statistics to reveal how TV and social media complement each other. The insights show how ‘multi-screening’ is becoming a mainstream activity in many countries, how TV drives commentary online and how the marriage of TV and internet-connected second screens presents opportunities for advertisers.

There is no doubt that multi-screening has now become mainstream. During peak-time viewing in the UK, 74% claim to have picked up an internet connected device during TV ad breaks, with very little difference between age groups, social demographics or gender (Craft/Thinkbox ‘Screen Life: TV advertising everywhere’, 2014).

The report found that most TV shows attract some social media commentary, but the shows which attract the most tend to be live sports and reality TV shows. Over 40% of French viewers aged 15-60 say that they have engaged with a TV programme via a social network (OmnicomMediaGroup/ Mesagraph – Social Télévision).

In Switzerland, 37% say that it’s “normal” and “commonplace” to use the internet while watching TV and in Spain, 62% of people claimed in 2013 to use a second screen while watching TV – a figure that has increased by 11% in the last year, according to the report.

In Sweden, 55% of viewers have used another screen – smartphone, tablet or computer – while watching TV and in Poland, 33% of people have multi-screened. Half of that multi-screening activity is due to looking at content that is related to what is being watched.

Multi-screening also provides an opportunity for brands. Research in the UK has found that multi-screening in ad breaks does not affect ad recall. People who multi-screen during TV ad breaks are able to explicitly recall almost as many ads as the average viewer. Multi-screeners can recall two ads from the previous 15 minutes of viewing compared to the 1.9 average.

In Spain, 30% of users of social platforms comment on TV advertising and in Switzerland, 16% of people who multi-screen say that they are looking for additional information on brands and products that they have seen on TV.

Despite this new trend of multi-screening, TV still remains the primary screen. In Germany, 86% of all video touchpoints among adults aged 14-59 are with live linear television. The figure is similar for 14-20 year olds, where the figure is 76% for linear TV.

In the Netherlands, 65% of the time spent watching TV is spent solely watching TV, without any other activity.

In the UK, however, TV plays the most profound role within people’s homes with 98% of TV viewing taking place on a television set.