James R | On 06, Feb 2014

Bad news this morning: Brits are obsessed with box sets. Yes, you, him, her, potentially everyone in the country, we all could be closet box set addicts, according to research from blinkbox.

41 per cent of Brits surveyed by Tesco’s video on-demand company said they watch box sets in bed, with one-third likely to get less sleep when hooked on a series. Hey, who hasn’t been there? We all like a little VOD in our pants.

But wait, it gets worse. 61 per cent said they feel compelled to watch more than one episode at a time and see less live TV as a result, a sign that binge-watching is seriously starting to affect tradtional viewing habits in the UK.

Still not concerned? The poll also found that 2 per cent of box set watchers have had to get a fix of their favourite show on the toilet, as video on-demand begins to interfere not just with sleep, but with our natural bodily functions.
People are holding in their excrement to stream one more minute of Breaking Bad. These are dark times, indeed. And not just for your toilet roll.

It gets worse. More than one in five (21 per cent) added that they would rather watch a box set than have sex. SEX. This is the tipping point, people. This is where TV box sets and video on-demand are seriously starting to impact the future survival of the human civilisation. In our excitement over new technology, we spent too much time thinking about whether we could – and not enough time thinking about whether we should.

Of course, it may just be that blinkbox commissioned the survey to promote its new Try TV on Us offer, which lets fans sample the first episode of a range of TV series for free before committing to buy a whole run. The initiative includes Breaking Bad, BBC’s Sherlock, Zooey Deschanel’s New Girl and the sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Customers can watch as many of the 28 episodes as they like during the promotional period.

But while the timing is suspicious, the report also includes scientific terms such as FOMO (“fear of missing out”) as peer pressure from friends and family drive people to watch a TV box set. In the home, 18 per cent are likely to have a row with a friend or partner who has spoiled plot details of an upcoming TV episode they haven’t seen. No wonder they prefer streaming to bonking.

The conclusion? This is either a PR stunt, or the entire human race is in serious jeopardy.

We vote the latter. And video on-demand is to blame. WHAT HAVE WE DONE?

To see the full range of Try TV on US shows, head to http://www.blinkbox.com/trytv. But if blinkbox’s research is to be believed, it might be best not to click the link at all.

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