MUMBAI: The prospect of faster broadband connections will not be the catalyst for increase in TV viewing online, says a survey to be published by Deloitte/YouGov on behalf of the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival.

The three-day festival is beginning tomorrow in the UK.

Of the 2,123 viewers polled, 53 per cent said they would not watch more online video clips or TV programmes even with a faster and more reliable internet connection and 29 per cent felt there was little importance in being able to watch television using an online service.

As many as 54 per cent of viewers surf the internet while watching television with 74 per cent of 18–24-year-olds multi-tasking compared with 40 per cent of 55+. Some 81 per cent of viewers use personal emails while watching TV.

Younger audiences are more likely to watch TV online but a surprisingly high percentage (43 per cent) of 18-24-year-olds said that they would not watch more TV online with faster broadband speeds. Most viewers found online content too difficult to access or did not know how to. A large proportion (71 per cent) of those who sometimes watch television via the internet do so to catch up on programmes they have previously missed on television.

When asked to list all of the genres of video clips viewers watched online, respondents voted news and comedy as most popular, each watched by 34 per cent, followed by music (30 per cent), documentaries/factual (23 per cent) and sports (23 per cent). The least popular clips are reality TV shows and factual entertainment, each watched by only seven per cent of the sample.

Online video is now more synonymous with traditional broadcasters than with online pure-plays. Viewers‘ awareness (83 per cent) of broadcasters‘ on-demand sites (such as iPlayer, itv.com, 4OD) is now greater than that for either YouTube (76 per cent) or iTunes (64 per cent).