David Farnor | On 05, Oct 2016

There are certain things that are tradition in England. Biscuits. Rain. Gathering around the telly to watch EastEnders. And, most important of all, having a cup of tea afterwards.

Now, though, that tradition is starting to fade, thanks to the rise of on-demand viewing.

Statistics are often trumpeted that herald the continuing importance of live TV, from major events to sports, but while industry figures suggest the share of time-shifted TV has risen to 13 per cent in 2015 (from 6 per cent in 2010), data from the National Grid highlight just how much streaming is changing our habits. With more catch-up options available every month, fewer people are tuning into programmes live, which means that fewer people are popping the kettle on in the advert breaks.

In the past, what’s known as the “TV pick-up” in electricity consumption has prompted the national power network to have back-up energy stations on standby, just to make sure that the surge in electricity consumption doesn’t destabilise the system – after all, even fridge-raiding, another important cultural tradition, requires an increase in electricity.

The record comes from 1984, when the BBC broadcast a miniseries called The Thorn Birds, about a Catholic priest’s affair with a farmer’s daughter, which generated a spike of 2,600 megawatts – the equivalent of 1 million-plus kettles flicking on. In 2001, EastEnders’ “Who shot Phil Mitchell?” storyline climaxed with a 2,290MW pick-up in electricity, while the soap regularly caused spikes of around 660MW.

Today, that’s dropped by two-thirds to 200MW. The Grid still has stations on standby, but the surges are much smaller – even events such as the World Cup only take spikes back up to 600MW.

All this information comes courtesy of the Financial Times, which spoke to someone at the Grid.

“We seem to be unique in the way that we see such big swings over a couple of minutes just at the end of TV programmes,” said Jeremy Caplin, the Grid’s Forecasting Manager.

“We see as many but they are much, much smaller than they were. The way that people watch TV has meant that they have come down in size.”

In 2014, when The Great British Bake Off hopped from BBC Two to BBC One, the Grid braced for a rise. It never occurred, said Caplin.

“Then BBC went straight on to some nature programme where they had 10 baby pandas on the screen. Nobody in the entire country moved from the TV screen. There was no pick-up at all.”

Fortunately, the ritual of eating biscuits hasn’t changed: according to analysts Mintel, biscuit sales hit £1.8 million last year, an all-time record. Some traditions are too sacred.

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